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THE PARSONAGE 
BETWEEN TWO MANORS 




REV. JOHN GABRIEL GEBHARD, V. D. M. 
" Delineavit A. Phillips 1820." 



THE PARSONAGE 

BETWEEN 

TWO MANORS 

ANNALS OP CLOVER-REACH 



Elizabeth L. Gebhard 



BRYAN 


PRINTING 


COMPANY 




HUDSON, N. 


Y. 




1909 








COPYRIGHT, 1909 

BY 

ELIZABETH L,. GEBHARD 



©CU25i9lG 



TO MY FATHER 

CHARI^ES WILLIAM GEBHARD, M. D. 

WHOSE TAtES OF OI.D CI^AVERACK 

WERE THE BEST BEI^OVED STORIES 

OF MY CHILDHOOD 



FOREWORD 

It is unusual for one clergyman to serve a congre- 
gation for fifty years, but it is still more exceptional 
that those fifty years should have begun contempo- 
raneously with the birth of a nation, and continued 
over the first half century of its founding and growth. 

The position of the church which the Rev. John 
Gabriel Gebhard served was unique, it being within 
the bounds of one Manor and almost on the border 
of a second. The Manor life for a hundred years or 
more before the Revolution, and for many years after- 
ward, possessed features, political and social, which 
give it special interest. The Lower Van Rensselaer 
Manor at Claverack, and the original Livingston Man- 
or on its southern boundary, have had few chroniclers 
outside of magazine articles treating of individual 
homes or persons. It has been said that we are a 
generation too late for the Manor stories, but hidden 
in by-ways, treasured by lovers of the past, to be read 
between the lines of sober facts and records, are still 

IX. 



FOREWORD 



golden threads of incident and romance, and the aim 
of the compiler and writer of this volume has been to 
gather together these tales of a by-gone day, before 
they have slipped away forever. 

A net-work of accurate historical fact lies under 
this story of fifty years of parsonage and Manor life. 
Beyond that are the stories passed down through pic- 
tures and letters and family possessions, which be- 
ing dumb yet speak a language of their own ; and more 
than all, the stories told at the fire-side, and in the twi- 
light, and along the country roads, of the men and 
women and children of the long ago, who were our 
next of kin, and whose lives bear a special interest for 
their descendants. 

There is still one more point which makes the Clav- 
erack Church and parsonage life important in itself. 
Though the parish of the Claverack Church covered 
miles of territory, and though the Church exerted an 
influence over a wide sweep of country, and was the 
mother of many churches, its early history is only 
recorded in its own parchment-bound books of record, 
for through almost a hundred years of its existence it 
was an independent organization. 



FOREWORD 



It is the hope of the author, that these stories of 
parsonage and Manors, the sweet and uplifting mem- 
ories of the past, may be like a cluster of clover-blos- 
soms from the old homes of Clover-reach, to the men 
and women of to-day whose ancestors called Claver- 
ack home. 

The information contained in this volume has been 
gathered from many sources, that relating to the Geb- 
hard family coming through the inheritance of letters 
and pictures, books and valuable papers, by various 
descendants of Dr. Gebhard. Thanks are due to Mr. 
M. D. Raymond for data pertaining to the records of 
the Collegiate Dutch Reformed Church of New York, 
and the unpublished correspondence of George Wash- 
ington ; also to Rev. Herman Hageman, Mrs. Anna 
Van Rensselaer Barnard, Mrs. Caroline Van Rensse- 
laer Hall, Mr. Stephen Van Cortlandt Van Rensse- 
laer, Mrs. Harold Wilson, Mr. R. Fulton Ludlow, 
Mrs. Arthur T. Sutcliffe, Mrs. Edward Hoffman 
Lynes, and Miss Georgina Schuyler, through whose 
generous co-operation, records and stories of the Van 
Rensselaers, Livingstons, Fultons, and various Clav- 
erack families have been obtained. 

zi. 



FOREWORD 



The books I have consulted are : Histories of Col- 
umbia, Greene, and Dutchess Counties; Historical 
Sketches of Hudson, Documents relating to the Colo- 
nial History of New York, Ecclesiastical Records of 
the State of New York, Albany Chronicles, Magazine 
of American History, Spark's Life of Gouverneur 
Morris, Bacon's Hudson River from Ocean to Source, 
Theodore Roosevelt's New York, Memoir of Rev. 
Richard Sluyter, Life of Washington Irving, Higgin- 
son's History of the United States, Manual of the Re- 
formed Church in America, Claverack Old and New, 
by F. H. Webb; the Claverack Centennial, Documen- 
tary History of New York, Annals of the Van Rens- 
selaers, Clarkson's Clermont or Livingston Manor, 
Church Records of Claverack, Livingston Manor, and 
the German Reformed Church of New York ; Cata- 
logue of Washington Seminary, The Posthumous 
Works of Ann Eliza Bleecker, Some Colonial Home- 
steads, Catherine Schuyler, by Mary Gay Humph- 
reys, the Goede Vrouw of Mana-ha-ha, Mrs. Ellet's 
Women of the Revolution, Sketches of Catskill, and 
The Early History of Saugerties. 



CONTENTS 



I-FROM WALDORF TO ESOPUS 

Rev. John Gabriel Gebhard, a native of Waldorf, Germany- 
Sailed for America — Pastor of the Churches of Whitpain and 
Worcester, Pennsylvania — Married in Philadelphia — Called to tha 
German Reformed Church of New York — Pronounced patriotic 
utterances — Driven to Esopus through New York's occupation 
by the British — Called to Claverack 1 

II—CLAVERACKINTHELOWER VAN 
RENSSELAER MANOR 

Moving to Claverack — Situation of Church and parsonage — 
Hendrick Van Rensselaer and the Lower Manor of Rensselaer- 
wick — Fort Crailo— First settlers of the Lower Manor — Building 
a Church — Pastorless years — Hendrick Van Rensselaer's death 
^Uolonel Johannes Van Rensselaer the Patroon — Erecting Clav- 
erack into a Manor — Colone' Johannes instrumental in building a 
second Church — The Dominie— The Dominie's wife ... 8 

///— THE FIRST SER VICE— THE FIRST 
SUMMER 

The Church — The " voorleser " — The singing of the Dominie's 
wife — The sermon — The first baptism — The baptisms and mar- 
riages which followed — Life in the parsonage 18 

IV— WAR STORIES A T HOME 

Signers of the Declaration of Independence — Committee of Safety 
— The burning of Kingston and the Livingston houses — General 
Burgoyne'a surrender — Margaret Livingston's wager— Tradition 
of Washington's camp — Captain Conyn — The Dominie's patriotic 
6«rmon— The killing of John Van Ness 37 

XV. 



CONTENTS 



V— WASHING TON SEMINAR Y 

Youths sent to the parsonage for higher education — Records of 
first years of the Seminary — Old school books — Teachers of Wash- 
insrton Seminary — Letters of recommendation for students leav- 
ing Claverack— The educators of the early days of the Republic S5 

VI-THE MINISTRY TO THE WILDER- 
NESS 

Fear of Indians andl^Tories — An extensive imstorate — Dangerous 
journeys — Description of Ghent and Schoharie Churches — Bap- 
tisms and marriages in the wilderness— Judge Brown the " fore- 
singer " — Courage in all walks of life 48 

VII— WAR HEROES OF THE MANORS 
AND THE IN A UG URA TION OF 
GEORGE WASHINGTON 

Public appeal for funds from Governor Clinton— Colonel Jeremiah 
Hogeboom's regiment — Captain John McKinstry's narrow escape 
from death by torture — Captain Brant's visit to the Free Masons 
of Hudson — The Tories imprisoned in a cellar — Brigadier-General 
Henry B. Livingston and the capture of Andre — Marriage of 
Richard Montgomery and Janet Livingston— Death of General 
Montgomery — Surrender of Comwallis — Treaty of Peace with 
England — The Morrises and the celebration on "Bob Hill" — 
Dominie Gebhard's letter to Washington— Inaiiguration of George 
Washington 66 

VIII— THE MANORS ON EITHER SIDE 

Colonel Johannes Van Rensselaer's visits to Claverack— First 
Manor House in Claverack — Colonel Robert Rutsen Van Rensse- 
laer's home — Henry I. Van Rensselaer's home — The Mills on the 
Manors— The quit-rent for the Patroon's domain— Killian Van 
Rensselaer — Leases of land— Rent days — Angelica Livingston, 
Colonel Johannes Van Rensselaer's wife — Chancellor Livingston's 
', home at Clermont— Last Lord reigning on the Livingston Manor 

— Homes of the Livingston Manor 67 

XVI. 



CONTENTS 



IX— LIFE ON THE MANORS »•*« 

Continuous building — Stocking the farm — Docks and sloops — 
Many exports and imports — Guests of the Manors — Costly plate 
and rich furnishing — Scripture tiles — Lady of the Manor — Alter- 
nate residence in ciiy and country 7T 

X— VISITING SPONSORS 

Sailing "ventures" — Travelers by stage — Catherine Schuyler as 
sponsor — Parsonage relatives from Philadelphia — John Barker 
Church and Angelica Schuyler as sponsors — Baptism spoons . 8S 

XI-STORIES OF THE POST ROAD 

Montgomery Place — Edward Livingston — Burning of Livingston 
homes — Brave Margaret Beekman — The " Hermitage " — " Teviot- 
dale " — Original Livingston Manor House — Its children and 
grandchildren — The Palatines — Flower-lined roads to Claverack 92 

XII- VISITSFROM JOHN JACOB ASTOR 

Dominie Gebhard recalled to the New York Church — The call 
declined — Tablet to Baron Steuben — Letter from Germany — John 
Jacob Astor's visits to Claverack — His start in the fur business- 
Tales of journeys after pelts^History of his early life — Voyage 
to America — A member of the Consistory of the German Reformed 
Church of New York . 100 

XIII-CHURCH CUSTOMS ONE HUN- 
DRED YEARS AGO 

Record Books of the Claverack Church— Building the Church — 
Renting seats— Minister's salaries — Dominie Gebhard preaches in 
throe languages — A divided Church united — Lists of members- 
Election of Consistory— Baptisms through the week— William 
Van Ness leader of singing— Church heating— Ministerial calls 112 

XIV- LIFE A T THE PARSONAGE 

Time after 1800— Letter from Jacob Gebhard— The Dominie's 
daughter— Samplers— The parsonage parlor— Boy's work— Sun- 
day morning at the parsonage— The slaves in the congregation 121 

XVII. 



CONTENTS 



XV— LOVER'S LANES AND PARSON- 
AGE WEDDINGS 

Sunday afternoon marriages— Refractory brides— China seta as 
grifts- Hudson Assemblies— The race on General Training Day 131 

XVI— DIVIDING THE MANORS AND 
THE CLA VERA CK COURT 
HOUSE 

Columbia County— Dividing the Lower Van Rensselaer Manor- 
Dividing Livingston Manor— Trials held in tlie Claverack Court 
House— Alexander Hamilton at Claverack — His first speech in 
New York— Aaron Burr at Claverack— After occupants of the 
Court House 138 

XVII— HOMES OE THE LOWER VAN 
RENSSELAER MANOR AT 
CLAVERACK 

Intermarriages with colonial families— Visiting relatives during 
the war— Family treasures buried at Greenbush— Furnishings of 
the homes of the Lower Van Rensselaer Manor— China and silver 
—Adam and Eve table-cloth— Family gatherings— Manor funer- 
als 147 

XVIII— THE SCHUYLER ROMANCES 

Homes of Catherine Schuyler's girlhood — Description of Mrs. 
Philip Schuyler— Schuyler Bible records— Nursing during the 
war— Building the Schuyler Mansion— Visits to Claverack of the 
Schuyler boys and girls- Schuyler elopements— Letter of Ann 
Eliza Bleecker 169 

XIX— ANTI-RENT TROUBLES 

Troubles over payment of rent— Boundary line between New 
York and Massachusetts— Lords of Livingston and Van Rensselaer 
Manors threatened— Boundary line settled— Sheriff Cornelius 
Hogeboom shot by Anti-rent leader— Uprising of 1840- "Big 
Thunder "and " Little Thunder " arrested— Victory of the Anti- 
renters under leadership of Governor Young in 1852— War of 1812 171 

XVIII. 



CONTENTS 



XX— THE NE W C/T} ' OE HUDSON 

Presidential Electors at Hudson 1796-1813— Hudson became a city 
in 1785— Owned many vessels— Shipyards— Exports and imports- 
Contributions to useful arts— John Jay's visit to Hudson— Death 
of General Washington 182 

XXI— THE MARRIAGE OE ALEXAN- 
DER HA MIL TON AND ELIZA- 
BETH SCHUYLER 

Claverack wedding outfits— Tories and Indians attack General 
Schuyler's house at Albany— Rescue of baby— Marriage of Alex- 
ander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler— Child of Philip Jeremiah 
Schuyler brought t, Claverack for baptism— Return of children 
to old Claverack homes— Dutch toys 189 

XXII— ROBERT EULTON AND THE 
EIRST STEAMBOA T 

Robert Fulton and Chancellor Livingston— First trip of the Cler- 
mont— Invited guests— Astonishment of sailors— Announcements 
of Chancellor Livingston— Youngest passenger aboard— Time 
from New York to Albany— First voyage with passengers— Thur- 
low Weed on Bompie's Hook— Rebuilding Clermont— The "North 
River "—Robert Fulton's marriage to Miss Harriet Livingston- 
Fulton's home— His art— His death— His wife's death , . . 196 

XXIII— THE LEGEND OE^'SPOOK ROCK'' 

Hudson marriages at the Claverack Parsonage— Changes in the 
parsonage family— Marriages of sons and daughters— The Ghent 
Church— The Hogeboom Bible— Claverack Church independent — 
Methods of raising Church support — Parents sponsors in baptism 
—No death records— Legend of "Spook Rock" .... 210 

XXIV- HIS ''HUIS VROUWE" 

The Dominie's wife— The tailoress and the shoemaker — New 
Year's day and St. Nicholas — Paas and Paas cakes — Nursing the 
sick — Philadelphia wives — The first linen-damask — City philan- 
thropy and country neighborliness 221 

XIX. 



CONTENTS 



PAca 

XXV— CALLING AN ENGLISH COL- 
LEAGUE 

Change of language among the Claverack people — Calling an 
English associate — The Claverack Church joins the Classis of 
Rensselaer and Synod of the Reformed Dutch Church — Rev. 
Mr. Sluyter accepts call to Claverack — Dutch call remains un- 
altered — Dominie Gebhard's sons — Painting of the 17th Congress 
— Divided ministerial labors — Grandchildren at the parsonage- 
Monday mo)-ning ministerial meetings 229 

XXVI— THE EIRST ROBERT LIVING- 
STONS CHILDREN AND 
GRANDCHILDREN 

Diary describing the upper Hudson in 1769 — Price paid Indians 
for Livingston Manor — Size of Grant— Boundaries — First Lord 
of the Manor — Building a Church— Livingston family at the 
Manor — Manor Houses — The second Lord of the Manor and his 
children — The third Lord of the Manor — Visiting relatives — Gover- 
nor William Livingston of New Jersey and his daughters — 
Liberty Hall— Letters from Miss Kitty Livingston — Order from 
Nantes— General Washington's letter to Miss Kitty Livingston- 
Livingston Manor Houses— Marriage of John Livingston and Mrs. 
Catherine Ridley 236 

XX VII— MANOR JUNKETINGS 

Building of Oak Hill — Furnishings of Livingston homes — Pen por- 
trait of John Livingston — Winter on the Manor— Sloop journeys — 
Washington Irving's visit to Livingston Manor— '' Widow Mary " 
Livingston — The " Widow Mary's " snap dragon and Colonel Henry 
I. Van Rensselaer's buggy— Livingston funerals— Livingstons who 
belonged to the first fifty years of the Republic .... 257 

XXVIII-.CHANCELLOR LIVINGSTON 

Chancellor Livingston's marriage— Offices held— State Convention 
to consider Constitution— Rejoicing over the ratification of New 
York— Constitution drafted by Alexander Hamilton— Illumination 
of Schuyler mansion— Chancellor Livingston appointed ambassa- 
dor to France— Negotiated purchase of Louisiana— Partnership 
with Robert Fulton in the Clermont— Chancellor Livingston's 
country life— Death 268 

XX. 



CONTENTS 



PAGB 

XXIX-EARLY RESIDENTS OF CLA V- 
ERACK 

The Ludlows-Old portraits— The Mulders and the Court Martial 
House-The Miller store— The family of Killian Hogeboom- 
Daughter married General Samuel Webb— Old Webb house—" The 
Night Before Christmas "—The Esselstyn family-The Van 
. Nesses- Samuel Ten Broeck and Maria Van Rensselaer and the 
first Manor House— Fitz Muzigh of Livingston— Tobias Van Deu- 
sen and his son James— Intermarriages between Dutch and 
Quakers— The women of Claverack— Dominie Gebhard's life in 
Claverack 274 

XXX-MONTGOMERY, LAFA YET T E, 
AND THE ERIE CANAL 

Removing General Montgomery's body to New York— His monu- 
ment—Visit of Lafayette— Entertainment at Clermont— At Hud- 
son—Governor Clinton and the Erie Canal— Its opening — Its 
success 288 

XXXI-SHADOWS ACROSS THE SUN- 
SHINE 

The Dominie'8 youngest daughter— Her engagement— The lost 
gold piece— Her death 298 

XXXII— THE CRO WN OF LIFE 

President John Adams' call to fasting and prayei^Governor 
Clinton's first proclamation for the observance of a public thanks- 
giving—Withdrawal of Hillsdale from the Claverack Church- 
Resignation of Dominie Gebhard— Final baptisms and marriages- 
Dr. Currie's description of Dominie Gebhard's last Church ser- 
vice — Death of Dominie Gebhard— Numbers of those baptized 
and married — Records in family Bibles 302 



XXXIII~IN BLOSSOM TIME 



Mr. Richard Morse's visit to Claverack— Interest in the old Dom- 
inie's library— Meeting with the Dominie's granddaughter — 
Engagement — Marriage 308 

XXI. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGB 

Rev. John Gabriel Gebhard, V. D. M Frontispiece 

University of Utrecht — An Unchanged Corner .... 4 

Crailo 10 

Court Martial House 28 

Claverack College 44 

Old Church and Parsonage and Washington Seminary . 52 

Schoharie Church 52 

First Van Rensselaer Manor House in Claverack ... 68 

Catherine Van Rensselaer Schuyler 86 

Van Ness-Livingston House 116 

Claverack Church — " Van Rensselaer Kirk " 128 

Court House 140 

Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer Manor House 148 

Henry I. Van Rensselaer Manor House 164 

The " Widow Mary " Livingston Manor House .... 164 

"Spook Rock" 216 

Mrs. John Gabriel Gebhard— The Dominie's Wife ... 220 

Robert Livingston, 3rd Lord of Livingston Manor . • . 246 

Chancellor Livingston's Home 262 

Margaret Beekman Livingston Manor House 262 

Ludlow Mansion 274 

James Watson Webb's Birthplace • . 278 

Bay House 298 

Mrs. Richard C. Morse, and Two of Her Children . . , 308 

XXIII. 



The Parsonage Between 
Two Manors. 

CHAPTER I. 
FROM WALDORF TO ESOPUS. 

In one of the colonial houses of Esopus, sat a young 
clergyman in his middle twenties, with his face bowed 
in his hands in deep thought. The question before 
him was a momentous one. Five years before he had 
left his native home in Waldorf, Germany, and started 
as many of the young men in that day did, for the new 
land of opportunity across the sea. 

It was the eventful year of 1776, and Esopus (Kings- 
ton) was full of refugees from New York, which city 
being invested by the British, many of her residents 
had fled to the smaller towns and villages further up 
the Hudson, that they might at least find safety for 
their families in the dangers which threatened. In the 

X 
2 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

fatherland young John Gabriel Gebhard had been 
trained for his life work in the best educational insti- 
tutions of the day. He had received his earlier uni- 
versity education at Heidelberg, and after a further 
course of theological study at Utrecht, had been li- 
censed to preach by the Refomed Church of Holland. A 
son of a minister of the Gospel, it would seem that he 
brought with him to America special fitness for his 
calling, and a pfomise of good things to come. In the 
five years that he had been on American shores, this 
was the second time he had been called to change his 
home, and this time he had a wife still under twenty, 
and two small children to consider. 

The young clergyman, after his month-long voyage 
froiri Germany, during which storms had swept the 
little vessel into the hollows of the sea and upon the 
crests of the billows, washed her decks, and even 
found the freight and luggage stored away in cabins 
and holds of the ship, at last landed, it is believed, at 
Philadelphia. For three years he had served the two 
congregations of Whitpain and Worcester, among the 
German portion of the population of Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania. Here in the first year of his 

2 



FROM WALDORF TO ESOPUS. 

pastorate, he met and loved Anna Maria Magdalene 
Carver, a descendant of some of the early settlers of 
Philadelphia. She was a charming girl of fifteen, and 
the customs of the time tending toward early matur- 
ity, in June of the following year they were married. 
Succeeding years proved the choice of the girl wife to 
have been one of the wisest steps of the young man's 
life. 

They had been married only a year when a call came 
to Mr. Gebhard to become the pastor of the German 
Reformed Church of New York. This church had been 
formed a few years earlier from a small body of the 
German-speaking members of the Collegiate Reformed 
Dutch Church in Nassau St., who wished to hear 
the Gospel preached in the High-Dutch tongue with 
which they were familiar. In this desire they had the 
full consent of the mother church. Indeed she ever 
gave her offspring a fostering care, the pastors of the 
German Church meeting in consistorial and classical 
gatherings with the ministers of the Collegiate Church, 
and being installed by the ministers of the older or- 
ganization ; while the members who had gone out to 
form the new church, also showed their attachment for 

3 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

their previous place of worship, by requesting the 
privilege of returning to the old fold in case their 
enterprise should fail, and to be allowed to bury their 
dead with the Collegiate Church as formerly. 

The call to the New York church had been accepted, 
and the young couple had taken up their abode in the 
city, the German Church being situated at that time in 
Nassau St. between John St. and Maiden Lane. Here 
two boys, Jacob and Philip, came to bless the minister's 
home, and the two years of his pastorate were full of 
activity in the growing town and congregation, and 
rich in friendships with men who like himself had left 
their old home and friends, to make a new home and 
life on American shores. Rev. Frederick Muhlenberg 
was at this time in charge of the only German Luth- 
eran Church in the city, and the two young clergymen 
were fast friends. Later Mr. Gebhard named a third 
son for the friend from whom he was parted when 
New York became no longer a safe place of residence 
for either of them, for both were patriotic and devoted 
already to this new country for which they had dared 
so much. Neither of them was bound by ties of kin- 
dred to the British, who claimed the righi of taxing 

4 




THE UNIVERSITY OF UTRECHT 

A corner which has remaine<l unchanged since Dr. Gebhard. ami Ur. Livingston 

were students of the University. 



FROM WALDORF TO ESOPUS. 

the American people, so their loyalty to the Colonies 
knew no hindrance, and their words were frank and 
warmly patriotic, their strictures on English interfer- 
ence bearing no uncertain sound, and it came to pass 
that the English felt that these young German patriots 
would better magnify their calling in some other town 
than one invested by the British, and they were fortu- 
nate that they made their escape in safety. Frederick 
Muhlenberg retired from the ministry a Tew years la- 
ter, and returning to Philadelphia, became a member 
of the Continental Congress of 1779. 

The roads about New York looked at this time like 
a perpetual moving day, for the active patriots among 
the townspeople left the city, many of them having 
already suffered from the confiscation of much of their 
property, through the hands of the Tory soldiers who 
plundered on every side. Every horse and cart, sloop 
and sailing vessel, which could be procured was press- 
ed into service, many of them carrying women and 
children, as well as furniture, out of the city whose 
churches were soon to be used as riding academies and 
prisons by the British, and whose congregations were 
already scattered. It was estimated that one third of 

5 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

the residents of New York left the city at this time. 

It was thus that the Rev. John Gabriel Gebhard had 
come to Esopus. After a short time it became known 
where the popular young German minister from New 
York was to be found, and since the supply of clergy- 
men was not great in the new country, even though 
outside of the cities they usually served three or four 
congregations, the New York minister received at this 
time three calls to vacant churches. It was over these 
calls that he was thinking so profoundly. There was 
much to be considered, possible war behind them cut- 
ting them off not only from the home across the sea, 
but also from the only homes he and his wife had 
known in the new land. There were the children to 
be thought of, and deepest of all, was the seeking after 
Divine guidance as he went forward like Abraham of 
old, " not knowing whither he went." 

The call from the Claverack church covered much 
territory, and there was also another feature, — this 
was a call to preach in the Dutch tongue. Mr. Geb- 
hard's university training at Utrecht had somewhat fa- 
milized him with the Low Dutch as it was called, but 
Latin was so universally used in the universities of the 



FROM WALDORF TO ESOPUS. 

old world, that the other languages did not hold an 
even chance. Still the young man was a linguist by 
education and inheritance, and he answered to the 
question of the committee from Claverack, as to how 
long it would take him to learn the Dutch language 
sufficiently well to preach in it, that he would do it in 
three months, which promise was kept to the letter. 
This settled the matter, and the Claverack call was 
given and accepted. Once more the young minister 
went forth into a strange land, a land which most sure- 
ly the Lord had given him for ministerial labors, as he 
gave the broad acres of Canaan to Abraham for a pos- 
session. The fifty year's pastorate which followed was 
the proof and fulfillment of the wisdom of the choice 
made in the fear of the Lord, in the tarrying-place of 
Esopus, in the eventful year of '76, and to the young 
minister's inalienable right to the V. D. M. (Minister 
or Servant of the Word of God) which always follow- 
ed the signing of his name in the early days, as it did 
that of many of the clergymen which the Old World 
sent to the New. 



CHAPTER II. 

CLAVERACK IN THE LOWER VAN 
RENSSELAER MANOR. 

A sloop carried the family and their belongings 
from Esopus to Claverack Landing, for the town of 
Hudson did not exist at that time, a hamlet at the riv- 
er connecting the great water-way with the growing 
settlement of Claverack further inland. The road from 
Claverack Landing to the parsonage lay through a 
most beautiful and fertile tract of country. There is 
a tradition that the name Claverack, which is a Dutch 
term signifying clover reach or field, was first applied 
to this country by Henry Hudson and his followers, 
when they sailed up the beautiful river which bears 
Hudson's name, in the good ship, the "Half Moon." 
All along the eastern bank of the river for miles, white 
clover sprang up spontaneously, covering bare tracts 
of land which had been burned over by the Indians, 
and giving the whole section the appearance of blos- 

8 



THE LOWER VAN RENSSELAER MANOR. 

soming fields. 

The name Claverack was first given to the stretch 
of the river inchiding Kinderhook, Claverack Land- 
ing, and Livingston Manor, a flowering land of clover 
blossoms, covering three quarters of what is now Co- 
lumbia county. At a later date Kinderhook and Liv- 
ingston Manor were not included in the district going 
under this name. 

The wagon-road lay along Claverack creek which 
was bordered by fertile flats. On either side of the 
road were nut trees and wild plums, with wild grape 
vines festooning the tree trunks, while stretches of 
fields between were dyed red with wild strawberries. 
Set down in the midst of these beauties and gifts of 
nature, were farms and homesteads, and great tracts 
of woodland inviting the settler with their abundance 
of timber for building purposes. 

The sight of the red brick parsonage with its gam- 
brel roof behind the pear trees, must have been a 
pleasant one to the little family driven out from their 
late home. The parsonage was built near the church 
and on the post-road, both church and parsonage over- 
looking a wide sweep of valley and upland, to the 

9 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

Hudson river and the Catskill mountains beyond. 
Doubtless the extended view differed from that of to- 
day, in that much of the present cleared land and culti- 
vated farms was then woodland, but the stretch of 
woods and river, mountains and blue sky and magnifi- 
cent sunsets, held that day as now, a grandeur seldom 
equaled in the location of our early churches. But 
this was no ordinary church situated in a convenient 
spot in a rural community. No general was ever placed 
at a more strategic point for wide-sweeping influence, 
than this young city Dominie, undertaking a country 
charge. The church property of Claverack lay within 
the Lower Manor of Rensselaerwick, and near the 
border of Livingston Manor. 

This district was a part of the great purchase of land 
made by Kiliaen Van Rensselaer in 1630, and was 
subject to the rule of the Lord of the Manor. But the 
Patroon of that day found it difficult to control mat- 
ters in this distant corner of his vast estate, so in 1704, 
he conveyed to his younger brother Hendrick, a large 
tract of land in the southern part of the Manor known 
by the name of Claverack, which covered one hundred 
and seventy thousand acres, and also one thousand 

10 




;W:^^. ..i^.. v*Jj^<ii^. 






FORT CRAILO 

Erected in 1612 by Kiliaen Van Rensselaer. 

The home of the Patroons of the Lower Manor of Rensselaerwick, 



THE LOWER VAN RENSSELAER MANOR. 

acres of the Upper Manor on the east side of the river, 
including the site of Greenbush. 

Hendrick removed to Claverack with such of his 
friends from the older community of Albany as he 
could induce to join him, spending his time between 
the Lower Manor and Fort Crailo, which stood on the 
northern portion of his domain. 

Fort Crailo, which was named after the family es- 
tate near Amsterdam, Holland, had been built in 1642, 
a stone in the cellar wall containing the inscription 
"K. V. R. 1642 Anno Domini." The initials stand for 
the first Patroon, and mark the date of the arrival of 
the first Dutch minister. It was a strongly built house 
with timbers eighteen inches square, and a chimney so 
constructed that nothing could be thrown down, and 
no one descend, a protection called for against the 
torches of the savages. As it was intended originally 
for purposes of defense, it contained nine musket or 
port-holes through which to project a rifle. 

There is a tradition that the Ten Broecks, Mulders, 
Hogebooms, Bensons, and Van Cortlandts came with 
the Van Rensselaers from Holland, as neighbors, not 
tenants, since they are not in the list of those who 

11 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

took the oath of allegiance to the first Patroon. That 
their children were named for the Van Rensselaers 
who were their sponsors in baptism, proves the friend- 
ly feeling existing between the families, and that Cor- 
nelis Stephense Mulder purchased of Hendrick Van 
Rensselaer one thousand acres in the town of Claver- 
ack as early as 17 18, would make it appear that this 
family might have been among the Albany friends 
whom he persuaded to settle in his " Lower Manor." 
The greater part of the early settlers of Claverack 
brought some pecuniary means with them from Hol- 
land, and often were accompanied by servants. These 
first comers also brought with them, household arti- 
cles familiar in the home-land, " waffle-tongs, pewter 
platters, high back settles, long stemmed pipes, punch 
bowls, many utensils in brass and copper, and Dutch 
Bibles. In some instances they brought whole ship- 
loads of bricks to build houses after the pattern of 
those left behind," but this latter feature of home re- 
production does not seem to have obtained at Clav- 
erack, where there were brick kilns at a very early 
date, from the product of which the brick houses in 
the vicinity were built. The home-made bricks were 

12 



THE LOWER VAN RENSSELAER MANOR. 

of good workmanship as was also the mortar, the mak- 
ing of the latter being a lost art to-day, for it is said 
that a nail driven in between the bricks will break be- 
fore it can be drawn out again. 

Hendrick Van Rensselaer did not exercise his priv- 
ileges as Lord of the Manor, but was active in the 
establishment of a church and other measures for the 
good of the settlers. Through the " upwaking" of the 
Patroon, and "out of regard for the aged and infirm, 
women and children," grew the desire to build a 
church and secure a settled minister. Their first at- 
tempt in this worthy cause failed, and the good people 
of Claverack laid it to the fact, " that because of their 
sins God was not pleased to crown their efforts with 
success." During the time that they were without a 
settled minister, Claverack was a preaching station of 
the ministers from Albany, who administered the Sac- 
raments and preached from time to time. 

However, they did not give up with the first failure, 
for in 1726 a church was erected near where the Court 
House stood at a later date. There were only twenty- 
six pews in this primitive building, six of them being 
long benches ranged along the walls and occupied by 

13 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

the men, the remaining twenty which faced the pulpit 
were set aside for the women, and each individual 
member had his own appointed seat allotted to him by 
a committee. So high was the pulpit in this sanctuary, 
and so near to heaven its elevated position, that it was 
reached by a ladder. Jacob's dream, in which he saw 
the angels ascending, and descending from heaven 
could not but have been realistic to a people who saw 
their pastor ascend this clerical ladder Sabbath by 
Sabbath, before unfolding to them the Scriptures. 

Fifty years had passed since the building of the 
first church. During that time there had been a short 
settled pastorate, and a long season of twenty-eight 
years when the church was without a pastor, and the 
men who occupied the elevated pulpit at rare intervals 
were from the nearest churches, which were not very 
near, Albany, Schenectady, and Rhinebeck sending the 
most frequent supplies. But in the year 1756 the Clav- 
erack flock again had a shepherd. Rev. Johannes Cas- 
parus Fryenmoet. His call was a joint one from Clav- 
erack, Kinderhook, and Livingston Manor, and his pas- 
torate continued until 1770 when he withdrew to give 
his full service to the churches of Kinderhook and 

14 



THE LOWER VAN RENSSELAER MANOR. 

Schodack. During his ministry had occurred the 
building of the church of which Mr. Gebhard had be- 
come pastor. 

Hendrick Van Rensselaer, the brother of Killian the 
Patroon, had been gathered to his fathers, and Johan- 
nes his son reigned in his stead. Hendrick Van Rens- 
selaer and his wife both died, and were buried at 
Crailo, in the family burial plot. In the annals of the 
day it is stated that news of the Patroon Hendrick's 
death was sent at once by messengers to all his rela- 
tives. Considering their number, and the wide district 
to be covered, one would infer that there must have 
been many lone funeral messengers, traveling the 
post-road and unfrequented bridle paths in many di- 
rections at this time. 

Johannes Van Rensselaer added several extra rooms 
to the Crailo, and erected Claverack into a Manor, call- 
ing it the " Lower Manor," in distinction from the Up- 
per Manor of Rensselaerwick, and was the first to ex- 
ercise his lordly privileges. He was known as the 
" Proprietor" of the town, and up to March 24, 1772, 
when the civil government of Claverack began, with 
its formation as a district in the old county of Albany, 

IS 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

the affairs of the people were managed under the gen- 
eral direction of the Patroon and some of the leading 
men selected for the purpose. At a later period these 
were known as a committee of safety or tithing-men. 

Like his father, Colonel Johannes Van Rensselaer 
was interested in the building of a church, and convey- 
ed a tract of land to the trustees of the Reformed 
Church in Claverack, "for the building and erecting of 
a Reformed Protestant Church, according to the Arti- 
cles of the Synod of Dordrecht," and the church long 
went under the name of the "Van Rensselaer Kirk." 
It is a tradition in the Van Rensselaer family that it 
was built of Holland brick which were first taken to 
Albany, and then brought down to Claverack Landing 
on a sloop, the Patroon taking great pride in having 
Holland brick for his church. The building was dedi- 
cated November 8, 1767, the date of the erection still 
being interwoven in the bricks of the outer wall. The 
site of the old cemetery at the side of the church was 
set apart at the same time. 

It was to this church, only a short distance from the 
parsonage on the opposite side of the road, toward 
which the young minister and his wife turned their 

16 



THE LOWER VAN RENSSELAER MANOR. 

steps their first Sabbath in Claverack. The beauty of 
the early summer was over all the land. Birds sang 
in the tree-tops over their heads, and wild flowers 
bloomed along their pathway. In the opening vistas 
between the trees were fields of early grain, while up 
the slight incline which led to the House of God could 
be seen the worshippers winding their way on foot or 
in springless wagons, father, mother, and long lines of 
children, for the Sunday school was still an undream- 
ed-of church nursery. The women wore mob caps 
and white muslin handkerchiefs folded over their 
bosoms, while the men of their families graced the oc- 
casion in suits of homespun, with broad-brimmed hats 
and knee breeches, ruffled shirts, and buckles on trous- 
ers and shoes. 

Many were the curious glances cast toward the min- 
ister's young wife, for were there not special interests 
connected with her being there? Young and attractive, 
she had known something of life in both Philadelphia 
and New York, a large portion of experience thought 
these country matrons for so young a woman. She 
was their Dominie's wife also, and that gave her a 
claim on the congregation, and the little child she held 

17 

3 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

by the hand insured her a place in all the mother 
hearts. The tiny bell in the belfry was tolling its last 
call, and the warm grasp of welcoming hands had 
ceased, when she entered the church door with the in- 
going tide of worshippers. 



18 



CHAPTER III. 

THE FIRST CHURCH SERVICE— THE FIRST 
SUMMER. 

The church of that day was not very much more 
than half its present size, nor had it a front tower 
or wings. It was only an unpretentious square brick 
building, with a tiny belfry on one end over the en- 
trance door, but it was not the exterior of the church 
that would have held one's eyes fixed, and attention 
riveted at that date, but the interior where the Domi- 
nie's wife sat in the high-backed pew this early July 
Sunday in '76, on every side of her the members of 
a congregation who had been six years without a min- 
ister, and who waited eagerly for a pastor's form in 
their pulpit, and a pastor's wife in the minister's pew. 

Above the heads of the congregation was a wooden 
ceiling with great rafters. The walls were plastered 
a shade approaching white, while the woodwork was 
painted blue. The pulpit was shaped like a wine glass 

19 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

and stood in the north end of the church. That also 
was painted blue and surmounted by a sounding 
board on which "Holiness to the Lord," was appro- 
priately inscribed, and at the further end of the church 
was a large window covered with a red curtain. The 
elders and deacons sat at the right and left of the pul- 
pit, and Colonel Johannes Van Rensselaer the Lord of 
the Lower Manor, held an honored place in his elevat- 
ed and canopied pew among his army of lease holders. 
As was the custom, a part of the service was under 
way before the Dominie entered. Beneath the pulpit 
sat the "voorleser" who was almost as important as 
the minister himself in the appropriate carrying on of 
the service. This dignitary began the service by read- 
ing the Scriptures, including the commandments, after 
which he gave out a psalm and pitched the tune. Now 
attention was divided between the Dominie and the 
Dominie's wife, for as the music of the psalm arose, 
a clear voice joined in the singing, whose flute-like 
notes were a joy to the music-loving High and Low 
Dutch people about her. From the first Sunday in the 
Claverack church the singing of the Dominie's wife 
never ceased to charm the congregation, and had there 

20 



THE FIRST SUMMER. 



been any withholding of allegiance to the new-comer 
up to this moment, the opening psalm would have dis- 
sipated the last doubt. 

The Dominie himself entered at this point. Of med- 
ium height and slight of build, he advanced lightly up 
tne aisle, bowing courteously to the right and left after 
the genial German custom, then paused at the foot 
of the pulpit stairs with bowed head for a moment of 
prayer. It was a pleasant countenance which faced the 
congregation for the first time that morning, his bright 
blue eyes sweeping over the scene before him with an 
interest equal to that of the people. It was a pivotal 
moment for pulpit and pew, but they both stood the 
test. A liturgy was used for the service as in all the 
Reformed Churches on the continent. With a clear 
voice and animated gestures the Dominie began his 
discourse. We have no account of that first sermon, 
but have no doubt it was of the full length offered at 
that period, a carefully written, scholarly discourse, as 
proved by the time-yellowed specimens still in exis- 
tence, with their fine chirography and minute margin- 
al references. 

Though the services of those days were lengthy, 

21 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

there were blessed breaks in the hours, which gave the 
children hidden away in the high-backed pews, occa- 
sional relaxation from the serious aspect of the re- 
maining time. When the deacons stepped forth with 
their money bags suspended from long poles, and fur- 
nished with jingling bells, it is safe to affirm that all 
the youthful eyes in the church followed their course 
up and down the aisles, and childish ears caught the 
sound of tinkling bells after the deacons and their bags 
had passed from their sight. 

Even on the first Sunday there seems to have been 
a feature of the service which never failed to hold the 
childish attention, or prayerful interest of the parents 
in all the fifty years to follow. Catherine Elizabeth 
Emerick, the infant daughter of Frantz and Elizabeth 
Emerick was baptized at that time, and for "Testium" 
as the old records have it, there were "Peter Adam 
Smit and his vrouwe." One can hardly grasp in these 
days of the over-churching of certain localities, and 
the possibility of reaching a minister at a few mo- 
ments' notice, the privations of a God-fearing people 
stretching over a wide reach of country, far from the 
ministrations of a man of God. Baptism.s were long 

23 



THE FIRST SUMMER. 



deferred, marriages were only possible at distant pe- 
riods or performed by civil officers, burials were often 
without a word of prayer. There must have been 
many heart burnings in the thirty-two pastorless years 
of this church, out of the preceding fifty. 

As if the people called first for the sacramental du- 
ties of their minister, almost every Sabbath became a 
baptismal day. Long lines of parents and god-parents 
stood before him at the Sunday morning service, con- 
secrating their children to God, while the Dominie's 
hand was laid in blessing on numerous little heads. 
Thirteen children were baptized during this first 
month of July, forty children during the remainder of 
the first year, and in the next thirteen years, one thou- 
sand one hundred and twenty-four children received 
the rite of baptism, and one hundred and sixteen per- 
sons united with the church. Nor was this all. Com- 
munion Sunday was once more observed, and the Sac- 
rament of the Lord's Supper was again celebrated. Ac- 
cording to the old Dutch custom, communicants left 
their seats, and group after group surrounded the 
Lord's table, where the elements were distributed to 
each by the hand of the Dominie himself. Christmas, 

23 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

New Year's day. Good Friday, Easter, and Whitsun- 
day were also feast days, and new spiritual life began 
to show itself in the community, as the church once 
more threw open its doors, and the people went up to 
the House of the Lord. 

The young people also grasped their opportunity. It 
was a summer of love-making. The young farmer 
dreamed of his sweet-heart in the fields as he planted 
and pruned and harvested, while maidenly hearts beat 
quickly when the lover passed at sunrise or nightfall, 
for was not the Dominie ready, and the time of har- 
vesting of crops was near. Why longer delay the mar- 
riage day? 

George Phillips and Genoa Ostrander were married 
in July of this first year. In September, Conrad Petri 
and Anna Margretta Stall from the Manor of Livings- 
ton drove over to the Dominie's for the tying of the 
nuptial bands. Every month after fhis had its mar- 
riage celebrations. Later, April, May and August be- 
came favorite bridal months. In time September and 
October and November sometimes saw two, three, or 
more weddings in a day. In fact all months were fav- 
orable for this joyful function, and no month passed 

24 



THE FIRST SUMMER. 



without from two, to eight or ten marriages, the Dom- 
inie marrying four hundred and twenty-eight couples 
before the year 1789. Baptizing the children, marry- 
ing the lov^ers, burying the dead, meant something in 
this congregation. They were not occasional events, 
but weekly, and often daily duties. 

Meanwhile life in the parsonage had settled into 
quiet lines and homely duties. The pastor's wife spun 
and wove and cared for her little boys, giving and re- 
ceiving the hospitalities of a minister's household. 
Both she and the Dominie were possessed of a culti- 
vated musical taste. In crossing the ocean from a mu- 
sic-loving German town, he had brought with him, 
as seemed to be the custom of the times, some form 
of merchandise whose ready sale in the new country, 
would make the early days of the stranger in a strange 
land financially comfortable. In this case the mer- 
chandise imported from Germany was composed of 
three pianos or spinets. Two of these were destined 
never to reach American shores, for the voyagers en- 
countered a great storm at sea, and the two pianos 
which had been given special care in a place above 
decks, were, with everything else within reach, thrown 

25 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

overboard to lighten the ship. The third piano had 
been packed in the hold, and was saved. It became a 
familiar sight to the Claverack congregation to see the 
Dominie playing upon this piano, while his wife sang 
from a thick old book of German chorals of eight hun- 
dred pages. 



26 



CHAPTER IV. 
WAR STORIES AT HOME. 

There seemed to be peace and security in the gam- 
brel-roofed parsonage in the country, yet even here 
there was reason for caution. No silver or pewter were 
used on the parsonage table after nightfall for fear 
of both Indians and Tories looking in through the win- 
dows and discovering it. The latter felt such a deep 
hatred for their Whig neighbors, that some of them 
hesitated at no crime upon opportunity. It became a 
custom of the times to build triangular passage ways 
in the houses, with three doors, one on either side, al- 
lowing of hiding and escape in different directions. 
Silver was thrown hastily under heaps of rags upon 
the unexpected visits of Tories, and in some cases the 
rags were pierced by bayonets without the silver be- 
ing discovered. 

There was alternate gloom and rejoicing in the coun- 
try all about, which could not but be deeply felt by 

27 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

both the pastor and his wife. In New York and Phila- 
delphia they had left friends whose welfare in these 
turbulent times was an anxiety to them. Philip Liv- 
ingston the brother of their neighbor of the near-by 
Livingston Manor, had been one of the Signers of the 
Declaration of Independence. Lewis Morris, the 
brother of Richard Morris, a member of the Claverack 
congregation, was another Signer. Every set-back of 
the war put these brave men's lives in jeopardy. The 
Dominie and his wife had left the Signers in Philadel- 
phia and New York only to find them again, or their 
families, in this fair country place. 

The Committee of Safety established and maintain- 
ed a night-watch during the most tronblesome times, 
consisting of twelve ,men each night, serving two by 
two for two hours and a half. Companies of Claver- 
ack men were engaged in the war, and many fears 
were entertained that the British might sail up the 
Hudson, and find even this retired settlement. 

In 1777 this fear seemed about to be realized when 
General Vaughan landed at Clermont, and fired the 
residence of Chancellor Livingston and the Manor 
House occupied by his mother, in revenge for the 

28 




_ -w 3 



WAR STORIES AT HOME. 



prominent part the Chancellor had taken in the Revo- 
lution. The burning of Kingston had fallen heavily on 
the hearts of the little family at the parsonage, who 
remembered with gratitude the kindness they had re- 
ceived while tarrying there for a time without home or 
near friends. It also seemed to them that the destruc- 
tion of war followed hard after them. The Livingstons 
of Clermont were in close touch with the Van Rensse- 
laers of Claverack. Colonel Johannes Van Rensselaer 
the Patroon of the Lower Van Rensselaer Manor had 
married Angelica Livingston, a cousin of Robert Liv- 
ingston 2nd, the first proprietor of the Lower Manor 
of Clermont, and .many of the members of the Claver- 
ack congregation were Palatines from the neighboring 
Livingston Manor. 

Like the weaving of a shuttle the news was 
carried from farm house to farm house, and from 
Manor to Manor along the Hudson. When it was 
known that every vessel in the river was burned 
or otherwise destroyed, that small parties landing 
from the British ships had desolated neighborhoods 
with fire and sword, and that at Clermont the family 
had hastily buried silver and other articles of value 

29 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

in the woods, placed books in a dry fountain and cov- 
ered them with rubbish, piled carts high with articles 
necessary for immediate use, as well as preservation, 
and had seen the smoke already rising from their 
homes before they had ridden out of sight, the conster- 
nation of the countryside knew no bounds. Not even 
the Committee of Safety seemed sufficient under these 
circumstances to protect homes and property. 

But hard on the track of the evil tidings came the 
news of General Burgoyne's surrender to General 
Gates at Saratoga, and the hasty retreat of Vaughan's 
forces; and trickling like a silver stream through a 
turbid current of misfortune, came a bit of gossip more 
pleasing to Claverack maidens than war and rumors of 
war. It seemed that Margaret Livingston, second 
daughter of Judge Robert R. Livingston of Clermont, 
afterward Mrs. Tillotson, had been knitting a long 
stocking for an old servant. There had been a wager 
connected with it that she should finish it in one day, 
and she had kept on with with her work till near mid- 
night, with a laughing perseverance determined to 
complete it and win the wager. She was nearing the 
end, when black Scipio rushed in with the joyful news 

30 



WAR STORIES AT HOME. 



of Burgoyne's surrender. In a transport of joy, the 
patriotic young lady threw down the stocking, and the 
wager was lost. 

There was great rejoicing in Claverack also, and 
from this time on the war interest settled in .more dis- 
tant parts of the country. There is a tradition that 
Washington once encamped with a division of his 
army at Claverack on his march northward, but the 
story has never been proven. 

The Tories continued to be troublesome neighbors. 
Captain Casperus Conyn, who held a commission in the 
Continental army, had leave to visit his family one 
night. The fact became known, and they awoke about 
midnight to find the house surrounded. Every win- 
dow had a sentinel. The robbers, or Tories, carried 
away everything available, and destroyed what they 
could not remove. They emptied cream pots upon the 
floor and feathers from the beds and mixed them to- 
gether, and helped themselves to all they could find in 
the way of jewelry and money. 

At last they took Captain Conyn and with a cord 
from a drum hung him to a beam, but in jerking the 
chair from under him the cord broke and his life w^s 



31 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

saved. The family were all locked in the cellar after 
that, where they were guarded till near morning, when 
hearing a horse passing, the Captain broke open a door, 
and ran out to find a neighbor near. At breakfast the 
following morning Captain Conyn gathered his family 
around him, and offered thanks to God that their barns 
were still full, but it was not long after this that they 
were also burned by the Tories. 

In the light of such experiences, and others already 
past, it would seem that the young pastor of the 
church showed both courage and daring, in taking 
from the pulpit once more a public stand for the Colo- 
nies against Great Britain. It is said that on this oc- 
casion one half of the men of the congregation arose 
and left the church. 

Captain Conyn's experience had not been the only 
one in the neighborhood which had incensed the patri- 
ots. The Tories through this section of the Hudson riv- 
er were collecting themselves together in 1777 to join 
Burgoyne's army. One division was composed of men 
who lived in the neighborhood of John Van Ness, be- 
tween the villages of Maiden Bridge and Chatham. A 
party from the Kline Kill neighborhood discovered 

32 



WAR STORIES AT HOME. 



that Abraham Van Ness, the old man's son, was home 
on a furlough, and watched their opportunity to make 
him their prisoner. The Tories at this time considered 
the patriots as rebels and outlaws, and organized 
bands to rob and arrest any active Revolutionist. 
Whole neighborhoods of patriots united to work each 
other's fields, leaving a small guard at the house. It 
was at a time like this that Abraham Van Ness was 
overpowered and captured. The Tories at first sug- 
gested that he be taken with them to Burgoyne's 
army, but eventually he was shot. In both the attempt- 
ed murder of Captain Conyn, and the accomplished 
fact with Abraham Van Ness, the perpetrators were 
discovered and treated to summary vengeance at the 
hands of the outraged Whigs. 

"Proclaim Liberty throughout the land, unto all the 
inhabitants thereof," was the inscription on the old 
bell in Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and when 
the boy who waited for the last name to be signed to 
the Declaration of Independence, ran into the street 
and called out "Ring, Ring," to the old bell ringer, the 
bell rang, not only for the brave "Signers," but for the 
men on the outposts, the men in battle, the committees 

33 

4 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

of safety who guarded the homes, and the men in the 
pulpits who risked their lives as well, standing pub- 
licly for liberty and right, swaying public sentiment, 
counting themselves bound by their calling and their 
leadership to "Proclaim liberty throughout all the 
land, unto all the inhabitants thereof." 



34 



CHAPTER V. 

THE WASHINGTON SEMINARY. 

In the after records of times of war, it is often for- 
gotten that the paths of peace were still to be trodden, 
homes were to be maintained, children were to be 
trained and educated. Dr. Gebhard had hardly settled 
in his new parish when he was called upon to receive 
youths into his family, that they might pursue classi- 
cal and higher mathematical studies under his direc- 
tion. Some of these boys were sent from Philadelphia 
and New York. Many also were growing up about 
him, lacking even the elements of an education. His 
own youth had been favored in this respect. Before 
long he would have boys of his own old enough to edu- 
cate. These combined reasons led to an effort on his 
part which resulted in the establishment of Washing- 
ton Seminary at Claverack, in which project he was 
ably supported by prominent members of his congre- 
gation. 

35 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

A record of the first years of this seminary is still in 
existence. The whole account is kept in Latin, as Dr. 
Gebhard was in the habit of keeping other records 
committed to his charge. This is not to be wondered 
at, considering the statement of Dr. Livingston, who 
attended the University of Utrecht at a time contem- 
poraneous with Dr. Gebhard's residence there as a stu- 
dent. Dr. Livingston says that at this period all the 
lectures were delivered in the Latin language, and 
before he left the University he could speak Latin al- 
most as readily as his native tongue, "he thought, 
wrote, and even prayed in secret undesignedly in 
Latin." 

A translation of the title and preamble on the fly- 
leaf of this ancient book, reads — 

"The Seminary of Washington in North America, 
founded in the first year after the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence in the year of the Lord 1777, and erected in 
the middle of the War 1779." 

"Most learned Master and Trustees, Richard Morris, 
Chief Justice; Hendricus J. Van Rensselaer, Petrus 
Weissmer, Jacobus Blattener, Jun, Stephanis Hooghe- 
boom, Georgius Monel, Walterus Vroman Wemple, 

36 



WASHINGTON SEMINARY. 



Hendricus Wilhelmus Ludlow, and Johannes Gabriel 
Gebhard having erected this Washington Seminary 
with greatest difficulty and unwearied labor, have ad- 
mitted Masters Dudley Baldwin and Abraham Fonda, 
the first as teacher in the Latin language, the last as 
teacher in the English language, preceptors under the 
supreme jurisdiction of Johannes Gabriel Gebhard," 

These trustees, together with David Sherts and Pe- 
ter Mesick were large contributors toward the estab- 
lishment of the Seminary. 

The Constitution of Washington Seminary provid- 
ed that "A house should be built which should accom- 
modate Masters, Tutors, Ushers, and Professors ; that 
Writing, Arithmetic, Latin, and Greek should be 
taught, and such other branches of Literature as the 
Trustees should from time to time find the means to 
support; 

"The Seminary should be open to all persuasions. 
"There should be eleven Trustees, of which the Senior 
Minister of the Reformed Dutch Church in the town 
of Claverack should always be one, the Governor of 
the State for the time being always one other, the 
Chief Justice of the State for the time being always 

37 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

one other, the Senior Branch of the Van Rensselaer 
Family holding the Claverack estate always one oth- 
er, and the remaining seven elected annually by bal- 
lot. There were rewards for learning, and fines for 
disobeying rules. The Superintendent visited the 
school every day and reported to the Trustees, and 
taught the senior classes in cases of death, sickness, or 
absence." 

The records begin June 28th, in the opening term in 
the new building, and continue through the following 
three years. The names of the pupils and their fathers 
are given, and to what class they are each assigned. 
Though the Academy was pre-eminently designed 
for a classical, higher English, and mathematical 
course, the elementary branches were not neglected, 
and we find the kindergarten here under the learned 
title of— 
"A. B. C. darian children." 

The "names of youth to be educated in the Latin 
language and admitted to this Washington Seminary 
in 1779," include John, Jacob, and Jeremiah Van Rens- 
selaer, sons of Colonel Robert Van Rensselaer, and 
John, the son of Hendrick Van Rensselaer of Claver- 

38 



WASHINGTON SEMINARY. 



ack, Henry, son of Walter Livingston, James, son of 
James Duane, and James Cochrane, the last three of 
Livingston Manor; Alexander, son of Gerhard Jacob 
Lansing of Albany, also Herman Ten Broeck, Charles 
Van Kleeck and John Dow of Albany, John Huyck 
and John Ten Broeck of Claverack, and John Thomas 
of Rhinebeck. 

The "A. B. C. darian class" had among others in it, 
Jeremiah and Elizabeth Muller, William Van Ness, 
the Dominie's eldest son Jacob Gebhard, Maria Bay, 
Catherine Salisbury of Catskill, Elberta Hoogeboom, 
Jacob Philip, and Volkert Whitbeck, and as sugges- 
tive of the feeling of the period, Gabriel Esselstyn had 
sent his slave girl Anna to learn her letters. 

In 1780 Henry Bedlow^ of New^ Winsor, and Robert 
Morris of Claverack were added to the Latin class, 
also William Nichol and Killian Van Rensselaer of 
Albany. It would seem that the learned languages 
were not deemed necessary to the education of girls 
at this time, since we find none in the Latin classes, 
but they abound in the earlier divisions, including 
English and writing classes. Each year discovers a 
younger child added from many families, Maria Bay 

39 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

is now accompanied by her brother, William, and Kil- 
lian Hoogeboom by Anatji, and the Dominie's second 
boy Philip attends school with his brother Jacob. 

It will be seen that the Seminary drew pupils from 
Albany to Rhinebeck, but Claverack showed its pride 
in its seat of learning, and its desire to educate its 
children by sending pupils from nearly all its prosper- 
ous families, even during this strenuous war period. 
It is also worthy of note that having begun their edu- 
cation, no one of the pupils seems to have dropped 
by the way, but as long as the record lasts, the names 
repeat themselves. In a number of instances, with 
the Dominie as leader, a father offers a term of school- 
ing to some other child beside his own. 

The school books of the succeeding decades tell 
stories between their covers. Books, even school 
books, were valued in these early days of our Repub- 
lic. A yellow-leaved, profusely illustrated copy of 
Virgil has on the inside of its cover, and scattered 
through the book, the names of "John Gebhard, Cor- 
nelius Miller, Gabriel Gebhard, John Van Rensselaer, 
Charles Gebhard and Robert Monel" with varying 
dates, and the statement "his writing" after each name 

40 



WASHINGTON SEMINARY. 



as a sort of witness to the various ownerships. The 
margins of some leaves are worn far into the notes, 
which must have been a trial to the later owners. 
Loose leaves are carefully sewed together, and num- 
bered in pencil, while at various points through the 
book are statements, such as — 

"Recited here the loth of July, 1782," or "Thus far 
has Lewis Gebhard rehearsed this Book, June 14th, 
1808." 

The blank sides of the historically illustrated pages 
were utilized by the young America of that day, to 
inscribe facts in their own youthful history. The last 
of these blank page legends reads — 

"Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer's 
Property, New Haven, 
And 
Lewis P. Gebhard's 
Property, Claverack, 
Dec. 6th, 1805." 
"Ego Carolus Gebhardus" states in Latin that he 
has mastered one-quarter of the book, giving date 
and year in the same tongue, or, for the moment for- 
getting themselves and their classical acquirements, 

41 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

a margin passes the information down the century, 
that their teacher, Andrew M. Carshore, was a "poet 
and a philosopher," 

That their classical learning was utilized to make 
records still more erudite, though in boyish fashion, is 
proved by a mixed Latin and English meter of a 
young relative of the Gebhard family, which is a type 
of the times. 

"John Bausman's Book." 
"Hie liber pertinet, 
Who can it deny. 
Ad Johannem cum Bausman, 
That clever young boy, 
In Baltimoriensem Collegiam, 
He is to be found, 
Sed non morietur, 
And laid in the ground; 
Ab omnibus malis, 
The Lord him defend, 
In vitam aeternam 
World without end. 

Amen." 
In 1780 N. Meigs was appointed principal and 

42 



WASHINGTON SEMINARY. 



served until succeeded by Andrew Maytield Car- 
shore. The latter had come to this country with Gen- 
eral Burgoyne as an impressed British soldier. After 
the surrender at Saratoga, he went to Kinderhook, 
where he opened an English school. Leaving this he 
came to Claverack and entered the family of Dr. Geb- 
hard, where he acquired a knowledge of Latin and 
Greek. Dr. Gebhard's superintendency of Washington 
Seminary continued so long as it remained a classical 
academy, and the duties of his office were varied and 
unique. Beside an oversight of courses of study, and 
the general management of the school, he instructed 
its early teachers in the higher branches, in which 
they were expected later to teach their scholars. It is 
said that Mr. Carshore easily kept ahead of his classes 
in this parsonage night-school, but when, as occasion- 
ally occurred, the translation of an intricate passage 
escaped his memory, or the higher mathematical prob- 
lems became too knotty for his lately acquired knowl- 
edge, the pupil was dispatched to the parsonage with 
his slate and book, or Virgil or Horace under his arm, 
and the President of the Seminary laid aside theologi- 
cal studies, to turn his attention to the scholar in a di- 

43 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

lemma. 

This plan of peripatetic education could not have 
been wholly distasteful to a boy or girl on a warm 
spring day, when nature in every age has invited the 
boy shut up in the school-room to "come out," and it 
is questionable if the call of Claverack creek and a 
fishing rod, did not many times conduce to the inflic- 
tion of the "fines" mentioned in the Constitution. 
Winter storms and snow drifts could not have been 
as pleasant, yet even these oJffered snow ball bouts, 
and we may venture to believe that the path from the 
Seminary to the parsonage was a pleasant one, and 
that the Master's stumbling blocks were eagerly 
watched for by the students. 

In time Mr. Carshore became an able teacher, a 
man of unusual genius and culture, and during the 
twenty-five years of his connection with the Seminary 
the institution became famous. Pupils continued to 
come from Albany, Poughkeepsie, New Rochelle, 
Livingston Manor, Hudson and Claverack, and at 
times Washington Seminary had more than one hun- 
dred students. 

Among those educated at this period were General 

44 



WASHINGTON SEMINARY. 



John P. Van Ness, Attorney-at-Law and member of 
Congress, Honorable William P. Van Ness, Judge of 
the Southern United States District, Honorable Cor- 
nelius P. Van Ness, Governor of Vermont, Minister 
to Spain, and Collector of the Port of New York, Gen- 
eral Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer, Secretary of 
State of New York, and often a Member of Con- 
gress, General Jacob Gebhard, Senator of New 
York State, Honorable John Gebhard, first Judge 
of Schoharie county, and Member of Congress, and 
Doctor Lewis Gebhard, for over fifty years a 
leading physician and resident of Philadelphia, Jo- 
seph D. Monell, and the sons and daughters of the 
Philip and the Miller families. These were all natives 
of Claverack. Ambrose L. Jordan, Dr. William Bay 
of Albany, Martin Van Buren and Robert H. Morris, 
and many others afterward prominent in public life 
were also educated in their youth at Washington Sem- 
inary. 

Treasured among the old-time possessions of some 
of the Van Rensselaers, and other noted men who 
once attended Washington Seminary, are the written 
recommendations of Dr. Gebhard, attesting to the in^ 

45 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

tegrity and ability of the young man about to start 
out to make his way in the world, outside of rural 
Claverack. The after career of some of these men 
would go to show that the Dominie was a reader of 
character, and the possessor of a prophetic eye where 
youths under his charge were concerned, as well as in 
larger matters. 

The love of education had traveled from Heidelberg 
and Utrecht over the sea in the heart of a young Ger- 
man clergyman and scholar, and out of it had sprung 
a. seedling from the older institution. In a new land 
it had trained the rising generation in old world liter- 
ature and the scholarship of the day. A large part of 
the citizens of the Colonies fought bravely to win the 
country's independence. All honor to the men who 
risked their lives and fortunes in so noble a cause ! 
But when the cause was won, the country called for 
trained men for rulers, intelligent citizens to obey the 
laws, instructed minds to meet new conditions. The 
old world would no longer send America its leading 
men. The United States would rise or fall as her own 
citizens met the great summons, and the great needs, 
and emergencies of an independent nation. 

46 



WASHINGTON SEMINARY. 



This was the work to which Dr. Gebhard and the 
educators of his class consecrated their lives. With 
prophetic vision they saw a future for this country, 
and while other men fought on battle fields, they were 
laying foundation stones in the education of the 
youth of the land, for future senators and governors, 
judges and foreign ministers, and also presidents of 
the new Republic. They were training citizens and 
moulding the men of a nation, and in this work Wash- 
ington Seminary bore a large share. 

For more than a hundred years this Classical Sem- 
inary, and its outgrowth, the Claverack College and 
Hudson River Institute, continued a controlling power 
in the educational life of Columbia county, as well as 
drawing within its beneficient influence pupils from 
many States in the Union. 



47 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE MINISTRY TO THE WILDERNESS. 

Claverack did not suffer to the same extent that 
New England did through the enmity of the Indians. 
No great massacres occurred in this region, but there 
were occasional forays, and the carrying off of women 
and children in the vicinity of Kinderhook as late as 
1755- These hostile incursions left for many a month 
a feeling of uneasiness and fear behind them, but as 
a whole the Indians were disposed to be friendly 
with the Dutch, who had treated them with great 
fairness. Still there were large numbers of them rov- 
ing through the primeval forests which covered a con- 
siderable part of the State, and their lawless raids in 
other sections, and their use by the Tories in acts of 
arson and pillage, made their presence a source of 
dread and alarm. 

The obligations of a pastorate which included Scho- 
harie on the north, and reached to Dutchess county 

48 



THE MINISTRY TO THE WILDERNESS. 

on the south, was bounded east by Massachusetts, 
and west by the Hudson river, required long and lone- 
ly rides over portions of country infested by both In- 
dians and Tories. Such a field of labor would have 
discouraged a man of less fidelity and courage than 
Dominie Gebhard. Over a wide section of his extend- 
ed charge the land was still in virgin wood, with here 
and there a small farm house. The roads were 
wretched, often little more than Indian trails. The 
Dominie's liberty, and even life, were sometimes in 
danger while passing the secret haunts of the enemy, 
especially in the rocky wildness of the country in 
the vicinity of Taghkanic. Yet it is the church of 
Taghkanic, of which we have the record, that at one 
of his quarterly visits the Dominie baptized thirty-six 
children at one service. These, with their parents and 
god-parents made a company of over one hundred. 

So while danger lurked in the dense woods and in 
the rocky fastnesses, the courageous minister placed 
his trust in the Defender of the Faithful, and took his 
way to these far off lonely outposts, that the infants 
in these mountain homes might be sealed to Christ, 
and the Sacrament might be administered to their par- 

49 
5 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

ents, and here, too, he oftimes found couples waiting 
for the marriage ceremony. 

The sense of pleasant stir in the farm houses under 
the hills can easily be imagined as the Dominie's quar- 
terly visit approached. From the home of the lead- 
ing man in the little settlement, where the prophet's 
chamber was being prepared for the visiting minister, 
and the housewife's store of good things was being 
hospitality brought forth, to the various homes where 
a little stranger had entered since his last visit, the 
Dominie's coming was eagerly anticipated. In some 
homes the tiny visitor had been the first child of the 
house, in others the twelfth or fifteenth, but in all the 
christening robe was brought forth and bleached, 
and the tiny embroidered cap, which had probably al- 
ready served its day with several children, was exam- 
ined and tried on the new baby's head. Then the 
nearer family friends were invited to stand as spon- 
sors, and before long every house in the vicinity had 
some part in the approaching great day. 

Plain and rude though the little church may 
have been, it became a holy place to these coun- 
try folk, when they partook of the bread and 

50 



THE MINISTRY TO THE WILDERNESS. 

wine of the Sacrament around the Communion ta- 
ble, and remembered the Upper Room at Jerusalem. 
And often before the day was done, the beginning of 
one or more new homes was formed, when a sturdy 
young farmer brought a blushing country girl, that 
the Dominie might make them man and wife. When 
the Dominie left on Monday morning, having added 
many good counsels to his other labors, life had taken 
a fresh start in the farm houses under the mountains. 

The fear of man was not the only danger lurking in 
the path of the good man on these long clerical trips. 
Wolves still roved the forest, and vast pitfalls were 
dug near farmhouses on the edge of the woods, to en- 
trap the wild beasts. 

Yet in spite of all and every danger, we find this in- 
trepid servant of God supplying the church of Squam- 
pawmuck (Ghent) twelve miles distant, every two 
months for five years. From 1777 to 1797 he traveled 
four times a year to Taghkanic. From 1795 to 1814 
once every seven weeks he preached at the Krum 
church, twelve miles distant at Hillsdale; and upon 
the death of Rev. Mr. Clough he assisted in supplying 
the German church at the Camp (Germantown), and 

5X 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

at the request of their consistory was instrumental in 
obtaining for them a minister from Germany. 

Of these various churches on the outposts, which 
were preaching stations of Dominie Gebhard, there is 
only one, beside the well-known church in the old fort 
at Schoharie^ of which we have a full description. This 
is the Ghent church built in 1775. This primitive edi- 
fice was clapboarded in the early days and unpainted. 
Like the Claverack church, it had the old-fashioned, 
high-backed pews and also possessed a "lofty gallery 
on three sides, and a wine-glass pulpit reached by a 
winding flight of stairs. Over the pulpit and the preach- 
er hung the inevitable sounding board, in this case sus- 
pended from the rafters by ropes attached to its four 
corners. The first records of the church were kept in 
Dutch, though the leaves of the old book, which was 
bound in vellum, and anti-dated the Revolution, bear 
a crown, and underneath in water marks upon its 
pages, the initials G. R., beside a seal, in which the 
lion rampant of England is a chief feature." 

The first entry is March 28th, 1775, and records the 
articles of agreement between the consistories of 
Claverack and Squampamock. The next is a call 

52 




THE OLD CHURCH AND PARSONAGE AND 

WASHINGTON SEMINARY 

The view is taken from the rear of the old parsonage, and Kives Washington 

Seminary in its earliest days. 



SCHOHARIE CHURCH 
Old Stone Fort, erected in 1772. and monument U> I)avi<l Williams, one of the 
captors of Major Andre. 



THE MINISTRY TO THE WILDERNESS. 

made upon the Rev. Dom. Johannes Gabriel Gebhard 
in which it is stipulated that he shall preach once ev- 
ery two months, and administer the Sacrament in the 
church of Squampamock, in return for which the con- 
sistory promise, yearly and every year to pay him the 
sum of twenty pounds New York money." This call 
was signed by "Lawrence Hogeboom" elder, and 
"Johannes Hogeboom" deacon. 

The longest journey in this ministry to the wilder- 
ness took the Dominie sixty miles over rough and al- 
most impassable roads, to administer the ordinances 
and preach in the old stone church of Schoharie pre- 
viously mentioned. In this church "Gersina," a daugh- 
ter of the celebrated Indian chief Joseph Brant, was 
christened while the chief and his squaw were on a 
visit to the valley. 

During the war small block houses were built in the 
south-east and north-east corners of the church and 
the whole enclosed by pickets, turning the sanctuary 
into a fortress. Here many anxious nights were spent 
by those seeking safety for their families from Indians 
and Tories. 

The faithfulness of the men who upheld these 

53 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

churches on the outposts was portrayed by the de- 
voted service of one of the members of the old Schoha- 
rie church. Judge Brown was for years the "fore-sin- 
ger, clerk and chorister" of this congregation. To per- 
form his three-fold Sabbath duty, he walked weekly 
from his home in Carlisle, fourteen miles, to the place 
of worship, and the same number of miles back again 
It was not only the ministers to the wilderness who 
were courageous and faithful, but also the members of 
their flocks, who vied with them in upholding the 
worship of God in this new country. 

■Courage was the watchword of the homes of the 
day. It was required in every walk of life, from the 
wife or maiden who bade husband or lover a brave 
farewell, as he fared forth to fight for his country, to 
the young wife in the parsonage door, watching these 
repeated trips into danger in the Lord's service. Each 
pictured the way in the night watches, one of the 
bloody battlefield, and possible victory and honor, or 
death ; the other of lonely winding roads or bridle 
paths, with a painted face or a Tory enemy behind 
some tree, and a slight form on horse-back winding 
his way alone through the wilderness, to come at last 

54 



THE MINISTRY TO THE WILDERNESS. 

tired and travel-stained to some farmer's home, and a 
little log- church, in which the light of the Gospel was 
ever kept trimmed and burning, by these ministers of 
God in settlement and wilderness, who like Paul 
"counted not their lives dear unto themselves," but 
only for the service and glory of God, 



55 



CHAPTER VII. 

WAR HEROES OF THE MANORS AND THE 
INAUGURATION OF GEORGE WASHINGTON. 

The War of the Revolution was drawing to a close. 
In the parsonage and the two Manors, and in the farm 
houses scattered between, there was eager expecta- 
tion of a new order of things. There had been suffer- 
ing and anxiety, privation and death in many homes. 
Soon after the election of Governor Clinton a public 
appeal had been made for funds from New York State 
to carry on the war. To this War Fund, Dominie Geb- 
hard and his congregation had subscribed liberally. 

Colonel Jeremiah Hogeboom's regiment had been 
made up largely of Claverack men. In Lieutenant 
Hendrick Van Hoesen's Company were Killian and 
Peter Van Rensselaer, sons of Hendrick, a younger 
brother of the Patroon Johannes, and through all the 
Companies the familiar names of Ludlow, Delamater, 
Philip, Harder, Hoffman, Esselstyn, Miller, Van Deu- 

56 



WAR HEROES OF THE MANORS. 

sen, Van Ness, Groat, Mesick, Van Allen, Pitcher and 
a host of others abounded. Colonel Robert Van Rens- 
selaer had seen service in the campaign of the Mo- 
hawk, while Henry I. Van Rensselaer served as Com- 
missary-General, and nearly all the sons of Colonel Jo- 
hannes, and his younger brother Killian Van Rensse- 
laer held some commission in the Continental Army. 

Captain John McKinstry, of Livingston, in the Reg- 
iment of Colonel John Patterson, had fought bravely 
at the battle of the Cedars on the St. Lawrence River, 
in the spring of '76, and had there met with a narrow 
escape from death in a more terrible form than battle. 
He had been captured by a party of Indians under the 
leadership of the famous Captain Brant. The Indians 
were about to celebrate their victory after their usual 
fashion, by killing their captive by torture. The fag- 
ots and the stake were ready, but Captain McKinstry 
remembered in that supreme moment that Brant was 
a Free Mason. He lost no time in giving the signal of 
distress which the chief recognized at once, and im- 
mediately directed his followers to liberate their pris- 
oner. 

In after years the two men were fast friends, and 

57 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

the Indian chief is said to have visited the man whose 
life he had saved, more than once in his ow^n home 
In later years Brant, in company with Colonel 
McKinstry, visited the Masonic Lodge in Hudson, 
where he was most warmly welcomed, and was an ob- 
ject of great interest to his fellow Masons. Charles 
Jenkins was less fortunate than Colonel McKinstry. 
He was taken prisoner by the British and confined a 
year and a half in the sugar house in New York, when 
he escaped and made his way back to Claverack. 

While the men of Claverack and the vicinity were 
serving their country in the war, the women at home 
sometimes had reason to discover an undaunted war- 
like spirit within their own breasts. One day during 
the absence of the men of the household one of the 
goodwives of Claverack opened her door to two sus- 
picious travelers. Their manner and words proved 
them to be Tories. The wife of the absent household- 
er directed them to the cellar to obtain for themselves 
a refreshing cup of cider. As soon as they had 
reached the foot of the cellar stairs, she dropped the 
door in the floor and dragged heavy furniture upon it, 
effectually holding her prisoners until the return of 

58 



WAR HEROES OF THE MANORS. 

her husband. That particular drink of cider proved 
an expensive refreshment to the Tories that autumn 
morning. 

Brigadier-General Henry B. Livingston, a brother 
of the Chancellor, was one of the most prominent of- 
ficers in the American Army during the Revolution 
from this section of the country. He served in an as- 
saulting column in the storming of Quebec. "As Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel he commanded a regiment in the bat- 
tle of Stillwater and was present at the surrender of 
Burgoyne," which was no doubt in part the cause of 
his sister Margaret's pleasure when she heard of the 
surrender of the British General. The destruction of 
his mother's and brother's homes he could not pre- 
vent, but further disasters on the Hudson, were fore- 
stalled by the successes of the army of the North. 
Colonel Livingston served under Lafayette at Rhode 
Island and Valley Forge, and became a fast friend of 
the French General. 

He was also in command at Verplanck's Point at 
the time of Andre's capture, and with his single four- 
pounder engaged the British ship "Vulture," with so 
much vigor and effect that it alarmed and delayed An- 

59 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

dre, and in the end led to his capture, and saved West 
Point. General Washington, writing of this event, 
said, "It is a great source of gratification to me that 
the post was in the hands of an officer so devoted as 
yourself to the cause of your country." Lossing adds 
to this eulogy, "Washington's confidence was not mis- 
placed, for there was not a purer patriot in that war 
than Henry B. Livingston." At the close of the war 
Colonel Livingston was made Brigadier-General and 
spent the remainder of his life at his home near Rhine- 
beck on the Hudson. 

No event of the war carried such gloom into the 
allied homes along the upper Hudson as the death 
of General Richard Montgomery. General Montgom- 
ery had met Janet Livingston, the eldest daughter of 
Judge Robert R. Livingston some years earlier, when 
he was a Captain in the British Army, on his way to a 
distant post. It was love at first sight, and though the 
meeting was brief, neither of them forgot the impres- 
sion made at that time. Montgomery, at the end of 
the war went back to England, sold his commission, 
and returned to America, and the second meeting be- 
tween him and Janet Livingston led to an early mar- 

60 



WAR HEROES OF THE MANORS. 

riage. 

They had been married only three years, when his 
election by Congress to the office of Brigadier-General 
cut short their dream of rural life on the banks of the 
Hudson. General Montgomery accepted the position 
offered him with a high sense of patriotic duty to his 
adopted country. In this he had the entire sympathy 
of his wife who was a woman built in an heroic mould. 
Her love for him carried her with him as far as the 
home of General Schuyler at Saratoga, postponing the 
separation as long as possible, yet no word of hers de- 
terred him from the path upon which he had set his 
feet. It was at the parting of the two, who had not 
yet ceased to be lovers, that Richard Montgomery ut- 
tered the memorable words, "You shall never have 
cause to blush for your Montgomery." 

Montreal surrendered to General Montgomery, and 
on the last night but one of the year 1775 he made his 
brave attempt to take Quebec, and was killed while 
leading his men in an heroic charge upward, through 
a pass filled with drifted snow and ice, and in a blind- 
ing snowstorm. "Forward, men of New York. You 
will not flinch where your General leads," he cried 

61 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS 

out, as he pressed forward in advance of his men. 
They were his last words. He was killed instantly 
by the discharge of a cannon of a seemingly deserted 
battery. The attempt to capture Quebec was unsuc- 
cessful, but General Montgomery's brave act is the 
heritage of the American people. 

The surrender of CornwalHs was an event of great 
joy all over the country. Friends writing from Phila- 
delphia spoke of the watchman's cry in that city after 
the glad news. "Past two o'clock and CornwalHs is 
taken," rang out his voice hour after hour, and heart- 
felt prayers of thanksgiving followed the re-iteration 
of the glad tidings. Congress recommended the ob- 
servance of a day of thanksgiving throughout the 
States, and Washington ordered the liberation of all 
prisoners, that they might join in the general joy. 

At last when the news of the treaty of peace with 
England was received, the rejoicing was similar to 
that evinced over the Declaration of Independence. 
The news was hailed with delight when read in 
churches and courts, taverns and stores, and many 
unique methods were adopted to celebrate the event. 
At a later date there were a goodly number of certifi- 

63 



WAR HEROES OF THE MANORS. 

cates of membership in the Society of the Cincinnati 
signed by General Washington, held by the men of 
Claverack who had been his officers. 

Richard Morris' family had come to Claverack from 
New York during the early years of the war. Having 
espoused the American cause, they found as did many 
others, that New York invested by the British was no 
longer a safe place of residence for patriots. Richard 
Morris' brother Lewis was one of the Signers of the 
Declaration of Independence, his brother Gouverneur 
was a prominent patriot, and he himself held the of- 
fices of Judge of Vice Admirality and Chief Justice of 
the State of New York. It is little wonder that the 
outcome of the war with England called forth special 
rejoicing in this family. 

When the news of the treaty of peace reached Clav- 
erack, Judge Morris procured a barrel of tar and made 
a great bon-fire on an adjacent hill. There is little ques- 
tion that Robert Morris, his son, at that time a stu- 
dent in Washington Seminary, assisted most willingly 
at this form of celebration. Nor can it be doubted, 
that Robert Morris' life-long habit of firing off a can- 
non from the top of this same hill, on Independence 

63 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

Day, giving the hill ever after the name of "Mount 
Bob," was an outgrowth of this joyous celebration of 
his boyhood. 

Dominie Gebhard was inspired to a different form 
of celebration by the treaty with England. He was a 
man of vision, as has been proved by his establish- 
ment of Washington Seminary. He saw before him a 
call for new forms of government. The present gov- 
ernment was loose and feeble, as Washington said 
later, "We are one nation to-day and thirteen to-mor- 
row; who will treat with us on these terms?" 

On September 13th, 1783, Dominie Gebhard wrote 
his Excellency George Washington a letter, setting 
forth his ideas in regard to the new government about 
to be established, along the line of towns to States, 
and States to the Central Government, based on the 
government of the Netherlands. This letter Gen- 
eral Washington acknowledged in his usual courteous 
fashion, and Dominie Gebhard's communication is 
still preserved among the unpublished letters and pa- 
pers of General Washington. 

Nearly six years later, April 30th, 1789, Washington 
was inaugurated President of the United States. 

64 



WAR HEROES OF THE MANORS. 

Washington's journey from Mount Vernon to New 
York was one of continual triumph. Addresses and 
crowds met him at every town. At Philadelphia he 
was received with distinguished honors. The 
Schuylkill bridge was decorated with laurel wreaths 
and triumphal arches of evergreens. "As he passed 
over the bridge a civic crown was let down from above 
on his head, and a great cheer went up from twenty 
thousand people." 

At Trenton there were similar demonstrations. Here 
on either side of a sweeping arch bearing the legend 
"December, 1776. The Defender of the Mothers will be 
the Protector of the Daughters," young girls dressed 
in white with baskets of flowers in their hands, sang 
as they strewed his path Avith flowers, 

"Welcome, mighty chief, once more, 

Welcome to this grateful shore, 

Now no mercenary foe. 

Aims again the fatal blow, — 

Aims at Thee the fatal blow. 

Virgins fair and matrons grave, 

These thy conquering arm did save, 

Build for thee triumphal bowers, — 

65 
6 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

Strew, ye fair, his way with flowers ! 
Strew your Hero's way with flowers!" 

He was received in New York by Governor Clinton 
and many distinguished persons, the Inauguration 
taking place in the old Federal Hall, There were re- 
ligious and civil services, and processions throughout 
the day, but its crowning feature was when in the 
presence of a great multitude of old soldiers and patri- 
otic citizens from many States, he stood on the bal- 
cony in front of the Senate Chamber, surrounded by 
men important in the life of the nation both then and 
later, and Chancellor Livingston administered the 
oath of office, prescribed by the Constitution. 

At its close, the Chancellor stepped forward, wav- 
ing his hand and exclaiming, "Long live George 
Washington, the President of the United States." 
Flags were raised, cannons were fired, and the multi- 
tude rent the air with their joyous exclamations. The 
new Republic was fully organized at last, with George 
Washington for its first President, the man most be- 
loved and honored in the young Nation. 



66 



CHAPTER VIII. 
THE MANORS ON EITHER SIDE. 

A few miles from the parsonage in either direction 
stood Van Rensselaer and Livingston Manor Houses. 
Those of the Lower Van Rensselaer Manor were the 
nearest, being a little more than a mile from the 
church. The Patroon Johannes Van Rensselaer, who 
resided at Crailo in Greenbush, but who had a summer 
home at Claverack, was living during the Revolution- 
ary War, and was still directing affairs to some extent 
in the lower part of the Manor, though he had several 
sons who had married, and lived permanently at Clav- 
erack, who took charge of the estate in his absence. 

It had been the custom of the old Patroon to make 
periodical visits to these Manor Houses of his sons 
for many years past, at which time rents were collec- 
ted and much business was transacted. The house 
now occupied by Mr. Charles Barnard, a lineal de- 
scendant of the old Patroon, was occupied during the 

67 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

Revolutionary war by Colonel Henry I. Van Rensse- 
laer, a son of Colonel Johannes Van Rensselaer, This 
house, the oldest building in Claverack, was erected 
by Hendrick Van Rensselaer, the first proprietor of 
the Lower Manor, in 1685. The first couple to live in 
it were Samuel Ten Broeck and his wife, Maria Van 
Rensselaer, the eldest daughter of Hendrick, and each 
of Colonel Johannes' sons seems to have taken his 
turn in living in the old house, James, who married 
Catherine Van Cortlandt, among the rest, though he 
eventually moved to Belleville, New Jersey. Killian 
Van Rensselaer and Peter, younger brothers of Jo- 
hannes the Patroon also took up their residence in 
Claverack, and Killian built at an early date the house 
which was later called the "Brick Tavern." 

On what is now known as the Allen Miller place, 
Colonel Robert R. Van Rensselaer, afterwards Briga- 
dier-General, another son of the Patroon Johannes, 
built a Manor House. The foundations of this house 
were standing up to a recent date. The present Manor 
House on this farm, to the left, going east, was built 
by Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer, the first Robert Rut- 
sen's son, as were also the "Red Mills" on the same 

68 



THE MANORS ON EITHER SIDE. 

place. On a section of land given to Henry I. Van 
Rensselaer by his father, the "Stone Mills" were erect- 
ed, and after the Revolution a Manor House also. 
"Buttermilk Falls" was once a busy manufacturing 
center, the Van Rensselaer mills consisting of woolen 
mills, saw mills, satinet factory, and flouring mills, all 
being run on the same stream. Every farmer was said to 
have kept one black sheep among his flock, to make 
the proper pepper and salt mixture in cloth, the 
fleeces being sent to the carding mills at Smoky Hol- 
low or Buttermilk Falls. 

The Manors and the mills were contemporaneous, 
their necessity being apparent to Patroon and farmer 
alike, and so important a feature of the Manor life 
were these mills and the water-power which ran 
them, that in the indenture concerning the old Conyn 
farm near the "Stone Mills," sold by "John Van Rens- 
selaer of Greenbush" to Casperus Conyn in 1765, "to 
him and liis heirs forever" all rights to pools, streams, 
rivulets, ponds, and creeks were reserved to the Pa- 
troon, though if a mill was built upon Conyn's land, 
"John Van Rensselaer of Greenbush" agreed to pay 
for the land so occupied. 

69 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

" The Patroons had a monopoly of fishing and hunt- 
ing, and possessed the absolute title to the soil." Their 
authority extended in judicial cases even to the penal- 
ty of death, each tenant in the Manor of Rensselaer- 
wick agreeing not to appeal from the sentence of the 
Patroon's court It was believed by these first great 
land-owners, that the country could best be developed 
by dividing the soil into large Manors, settled by ten- 
ants who paid for their holdings a yearly rent in skins 
or the produce of the ground, and who were often 
brought to this country at the Patroon's expense, while 
the Patroon himself paid a certain sum each year for 
the privilege of holding and controlling his own con- 
ceded territory, though it is surprising to read that the 
" quit-rent " on the Patroon's part was "fifty bushels 
of good winter wheat " for the whole Manor of Rena- 
selaerwick. The rents required from the tenants were 
also ludicrously small in proportion to the size of their 
farms, and the Patroons took many obligations on 
their own shoulders which made life possible in this 
unsettled country. The early churches, schools, mills, 
sloops, imported machinery, tools and conveniences of 
many kinds, had their founder and originator in the 

70 



THE MANORS ON EITHER SIDE. 



mighty hand of the Patroon. 

It is said that Killian Van Rensselaer, the First 
Patroon of Rensselaerwick, " was a nobleman not only 
by chance but by nature. He exercised genuine pro- 
vincial sovereignty. By his direction civil officers 
were appointed to oversee the business departments of 
the colony and military agents were named to fortify 
outposts, and make needful preparation against Indian 
outbreaks." 

It was Hendrick Van Rensselaer to whom Claver- 
ack was given, and most of the leases of land in the 
Lower Manor were acquired through him. The terms 
of the rental were nearly alike in all the leases, and 
stipulated for an annual rent of a certain number of 
"scheppels" (bushels) of wheat, and in many cases 
" two or four fat hens," the month of January being 
occasionally mentioned as the time of payment in hens. 
With the depreciation in the value of farm lands in re- 
cent times, there have been instances where legal rents 
have long remained unpaid, but, with a possible rever- 
sal to the ancient customs of forefathers, two fat geese 
have been presented at Christmas to the landlord as a 
kind of quit rent. 

71 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

Colonel Johannes Van Rensselaer who erected Clav- 
erack into a Manor was born in 1708, and was the Van 
Rensselaer best known to the people of his own 
Manor, of whom it has been said, "He was a most 
commanding figure in the military, social, civic, and 
religious life of Claverack." Mrs. EUet adds a word as 
to his other characteristics, "He was noted for his hos- 
pitality, and for his kindness and forebearance toward 
the tenants of his vast estate during the war." 

In one room of the Manor House at Claverack, Col- 
onel Johannes held court and received rent, and here 
many difficulties were adjusted, and much barter and 
some money changed hands on days when rents were 
due. Stored through the years with deeds of property 
and other valuable papers, are some of these old rent 
books. During Colonel Johannes' lordship, dating back 
as far as 1744, these rent books were written in Dutch, 
but the fact that "15 scheppel of wheat" constituted a, 
year's rent for a farm in some cases, and that it was 
paid regularly, is still apparent in these deeply yellow- 
ing pages. Upon the payment of the year's rent, the Pa- 
troon signed his name with his own hand, or on occa- 
sion of it being signed by an agent, it was expressly 

72 



THE MANORS ON EITHER SIDE. 

stated " For the Patroon." 

Later, in his successor, John I. Van Rensselaer's time, 
the records in these old account books are in English, 
pounds and shillings having taken the place of "schep- 
pels of wheat," and by 1795 Jacob Rutsen Van Rensse- 
laer occasionally signs his name to the receipt. Nor 
is it only the sons of the family who when needed 
stand in their father's place. The wife of the Patroon, 
or sometimes the daughter, or the daughter-in-law, 
affixes her name in acknowledgment of rent paid. In 
1776 Catherine Van Alen acknowledges the reception 
of "eight scheppels of wheat," Collec. for John Van 
Rensselaer Patroon." Though the Patroon may have 
been the highest court of appeal, with tenants spread 
over one hundred and seventy thousand acres, even 
though far separated, one might easily suppose that 
pay-day would occur on many days in the year, and 
that any responsible member of the household would 
often be called upon to stand in the Patroon's place. 

Colonel Johannes courted his first wife, and the 
mother of his children at the home of Robert Livings- 
ton, Jr., nephew of the first Robert Livingston. Angel- 
ica Livingston was a woman of pleasing and dignified 

73 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

presence, and of great executive ability, as behooved 
the wife of the Patroon of those days, and the Lady 
of the Manor. She had lived her early life in a home 
similar to that to which Colonel Johannes had brought 
his bride, and the training of the manorial homes was 
fitted to endow a woman with capacity for the man- 
agement of social and business affairs, together with 
the rearing of a house full of children, and the direc- 
tion of a corps of servants, which makes the strenuous 
life of to-day seem pale and languid in comparison. 

The family of Clermont, or the Lower Livingston 
Manor was closely related to the original Livingston 
Manor at Linlithgo, and this again with the Van Rens- 
selaers of the Lower Van Rensselaer Manor at Claver- 
ack, tying the great houses along the river in a chain 
of family connection, community of interests, and 
much social intercourse. 

The home of Chancellor Livingston, grandson of the 
first Lord's youngest son Robert was at Clermont, and 
all along the Hudson from Clermont to Staatsburg 
were scattered the homes of his brothers and sisters, 
men deeply and keenly patriotic, and prominent in 
public affairs, through all the early days of the new 

74 



THE MANORS ON EITHER SIDE. 

Republic, and women whose patriotism and interest in 
the affairs of the nation ever equalled that of their 
husbands and brothers. Chancellor Livingston was al- 
ready a prominent patriot, and a man whose splendid 
intellectual equipment was devoted to the upbuilding 
of the country. He had been one of the committee who 
had drawn up the Declaration of Independence. Fear- 
less of the consequences, he had identified himself 
with a movement destined to revolutionize America, 
but at that early date the results of the respon- 
sibility assumed, did not always point toward victory, 
even to the hopeful. He was also chairman of the 
committee who drew up the Constitution of the State 
of New York, which had been read in front of the old 
Court House at Esopus to a large number of people. 

At the old Livingston Manor at Linlithgo, the third 
and last Lord was reigning. Robert Livingston had 
come into his baronial rights in 1749 on the death of 
his father Philip, the second Lord. That the families 
of both the Van Rensselaer and Livingston Manors 
should have been, with few exceptions, noted for their 
intense patriotism through this critical period, is one 
of the noteworthy facts of history, for with the dawn 

75 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

of the infant Republic, would perish all dreams of 
New World baronies. 

As with the Van Rensselaers and the Livingstons o£ 
Clermont, the children of the last Lord of the original 
Livingston Manor began building homes for them- 
selves. Walter Livingston, son of the last Lord, erect- 
ed a noteworthy mansion called "Teviotdale" prior to 
the Revolution. General Henry Livingston, another 
son, who had given valuable service to his country 
during the Revolution, built a house in that section of 
the Manor which was afterward called Johnstown. 
Here he kept bachelor's hall for many years, dying in 
1823. It was John Livingston the fourth son who 
built Oak Hill, and who also gave the site upon which 
the Reformed Church of Linlithgo was built, adding; 
a further gift of land. In recognition of this donation 
the village was called Johnstown, and the name clung 
to the growing settlement, to which in 1814 the Manor 
church was moved, a Memorial Chapel at a much later 
period, being built over the old Livingston vault, 
where the first Manor church had stood for almost a 
century, having been rebuilt in 1780. 



76 



CHAPTER IX. 
LIFE ON THE MANORS. 

Though the days of the baronial rights of the Man- 
ors were fast waning, the life of the Manors remained 
much the same for many a year. Saw mills had been 
set up by the earlier Lords in the midst of the forests, 
the machinery having been imported from Europe. 
Continuous building went on in the settlements, be- 
ginning with the felling of the trees, and carried 
through all the stages of preparation, until the work 
ended in a completed house, whose beams and up- 
rights, joinings and sidings, were of that quality of 
material and labor which outwear a century of use, 
and defy wind and storm. 

Grist mills supplied flour and Indian meal to all the 
Manor settlements, and to many others for miles 
around. Great attention was given to stocking the 
home farm, for beef and pork were needed in abun- 
dance for the large families and many dependents, and 

77 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

also for exportation. Large droves of sheep wandered 
over the grassy slopes on the edge of the "Kills," form- 
ing pastoral pictures of great beauty, but in the shear- 
ing, spinning, and weaving time their practical value 
was fully apparent, when the blankets to be used in 
the Manor household numbered scores, and the won- 
derful woven coverlids of blue and white with the date 
of construction in the corner, were counted by dozens, 
and whole pieces of flannel, or linen in its own time, 
were laid away for clothing or napery, not only for the 
Manor, but for the poorer neighbors, to whom the mis- 
tress of the Manor was always expected to be a lady 
bountiful. 

On the Livingston estate were docks, and not far 
away from the Lower Van Rensselaer Manor was 
Claverack Landing, where, when the Hudson was op- 
en, sloops came laden on their outward trips with salt- 
ed meat, grain, peltries and lumber, and returning, 
brought cargoes of household necessities not procura- 
ble nearer home. Nor were the imports always necessi- 
ties. Many luxurious articles of home embellishment 
were brought over the seas from the older countries. 
The rude and the luxurious were often blended in the 

78 



LIFE ON THE MANORS. 



latter quarter of the eighteenth century. West India 
sweetmeats and Dutch garden seeds, sought for right 
of way in the cargoes of the sloops, with silks and 
laces, and articles of feminine adornment. 

The Lady of the Manor overlooked garden and farm, 
preserved fruits, stored vegetables, and put awaji 
meats in large quantities. Hospitality was a manorial 
custom. The post-road lay past some of the Manor 
doors and near others, and coming from Albany, or ar- 
riving from New York, it was not only the long- 
looked for letter that the stages delivered at the Man- 
ors, but guests of State, refugees from menacing dan- 
ger in war times, and relatives or friends bound on 
jaunts of necessity or pleasure. It is said to have been 
the habit of the Manors of the earlier days, to have 
beds and supplies of all sorts ready for at least ten un- 
expected guests. 

These manorial homes always contained, as did 
most other homes of the date, only on a larger scale, 
a number of relatives whom death or other misfor- 
tunes had placed in a position of dependence. This was 
a time when the solitary were literally "set in fami- 
lies." These relatives, together with the Lady of the 

79 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

Manor, made a superintending force, through whom 
the many slaves, and the workman of all kinds from 
carpenters to shoemakers, from tutors to tailoresses, 
were kept in employment, the whole of the great work- 
ing-force conserving toward one end, — the successful 
manangement of a great Manor. 

Costly plate and rich furniture held their place amid 
the homely employments of a large country estate. 
There were wide halls and long drawing rooms, panel- 
led wainscoting, and mantels with beautifully carved 
wreaths, and birds, and dancing maidens, above the 
tile-bordered fire-places with Scriptural scenes in blue 
and white. These fire-places were often found in sever- 
al rooms in the house, and in front of these delectable 
picture-books, dark-faced mammies warmed the tiny 
bare feet of numerous Manor babies before the open 
fire, while they rehearsed to the wide-eyed, waiting 
children, the stories of Daniel in the lion's den, or Jos- 
eph and little Benjamin and the piece of money found 
in Benjamin's sack, or told the story, in the soothing 
cadence of the musical negro voice, of Christ blessing 
the little children, while the sleepy eyes closed, shut- 
ting into dreamland the picture of the children clinging 

80 



LIFE ON THE MANORS. 



about the Savior's knees. 

Beautiful solid silver and white napery adorned the 
tables of the Manors, and although the ends of the 
knives were broadened, that they might the more 
effectually serve their purpose in taking the place alter- 
nately of both fork and spoon, and there were many 
other customs that would strike us as uncomely to- 
day, the life was lived on a large scale, and the conver- 
sation of a Manor table with the guests of note in the 
time of the making of a nation, might be envied in our 
own day. 

Not only looking well after the ways of her house- 
hold was the commendation of the Lady of the Manor, 
but she was also called upon to attend to her hus- 
band's extensive business operations in his long ab- 
sences in Colonial councils, on journeys abroad, and 
during service in the war. 

That the training of the Manor life with its alter- 
nate residence in city and country, its obligations, re- 
sponsibilities, and its hospitalties, was in many ways 
fruitful of the best in manhood and womanhood, was 
proved in the fact that at one time during the early 
days of our country, nine men of the Livingston fam- 

81 
7 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

ily were holding responsible public positions at the 
same time in different States; and in their service as 
officers, and soldiers in the ranks of the patriot cause, 
in the upbuilding of church and educational life, in po- 
sitions of trust and honor, the descendants of Kiliaen 
Van Rensselaer the first Patroon of Rensselaerwick, 
have filled a large place in the building of foundations 
worthy of the American Nation. 



CHAPTER X. 
VISITING SPONSORS. 

Two thoroughfares carried the traveler north and 
south past the Livingston and Lower Van Rensselaer 
Manors, and one of these passed the church and par- 
sonage doors. 

Sloops sailed up and down the Hudson, stopping at 
Clermont, and Claverack Landing, only four miles 
from the settlement of Claverack. These sloops 
brought and carried passengers and merchandise, and 
the larger vessels sailed away to the Indies and distant 
ports on commercial errands, called " ventures " in 
those days. The "venture" might turn out to be one 
of financial success to all who engaged in it, or through 
adverse winds and storms at sea, a loss of both lives 
and cargoes, and the ship itself. These " ventures " 
were often as interesting to the women of the family, 
as to the men of their households, for with the cargoes 
of merchandise of a practical nature, came many a 

83 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 



wedding dress and tea-set, which were eagerly watch- 
ed for in the homes of Clover-reach. 

The first mail-stages began running after the Revo- 
lution in this part of the country, and mails were deliv- 
ered at Claverack as late as 1790 for the city of Hud- 
son. The travelers on the post-road risked none of the 
dangers of the deep, but stage-coach traveling had 
many drawbacks, as well as a charm v/holly lost m 
these days of rapid transit by steam and electricity. 
However these obstacles to a comfortable journey did 
not affect a group of Seminary boys going home for 
vacation. Winter or summer in vacation time, the 
stage that stopped at the stage-house, where the post- 
road intersected the Columbia turnpike, dropped the 
weary and traveled-stained occupants who had come 
a long distance, and with a change of horses took into 
its capacious interior all the boys who could not bun- 
dle up on top. and went on its way with a happy rol- 
licking crowd of human freight. 

Pea-shooting was a form of youthful entertainment 
indulged in at the time, and the number and variety of 
targets to be discovered along a country road by a 
fertile brain, then as now, was not suggestive of brain 

'84 



VISITING SPONSORS. 



fag. The boys who left the stage first, carried with 
them a sense of miniature battle, and themselves in the 
thick of the fight. 

The stage brought many travelers to Claverack be- 
side the Seminary boys. Some of these stood high in 
the counsels of the nation, or had served as officers in 
the patriot cause. Others were friends who had braved 
the dangers and discomforts of a long coach journey to 
meet old friends and family relatives. No one thought 
then, as we are apt to forget to-day, that the Seminary 
boys on the top of the stage, with their infectious 
laughter and pea-shooters, and hair trunks packed 
with the varied miscellany that only a boy knows how 
to collect, were the future representatives of the new 
Republic. So the country-side watched those who 
emerged from the stages, rather than those departing, 
and their scrutiny was not in vain. 

Perhaps no one event was the occasion of bringing 
so many strangers into the town as the baptizing of 
the babies. Since, as the years rolled by, this continued 
to be one of the Dominie's most constant duties, and 
a common event at the Sunday morning service, and 
since the god-fathers and god-mothers who stood up 

85 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

with the children, were many times those for whom 
they were named, the church services came to have 
a special pleasure outside of the sermon and the sing- 
ing of the long-metre psalms. More than once, when 
some little Catherine Van Rensselaer was to be bap- 
tized, or a Philip Schuyler, in the Van Rensselaer can- 
opied pew sat General Philip Schuyler and his Claver- 
ack wife, Catherine Van Rensselaer, Colonel Johannes' 
daughter. 

General Schuyler had won great fame since he mar- 
ried "sweet Kitty Van Rensselaer," and "sweet Kitty" 
herself had grown into a comely matron, with the dig- 
nified air of a woman who had seen much of life, and 
managed a household, and dispensed hospitality to 
even a larger world than that of the country Manor. 
There were those in the congregation who had been 
guests at her wedding twenty years before at Fort 
Crailo, and the whole country-side had heard of its 
grandeur. Dominie Freilinghusen of the Reformed 
church of Albany had performed the marriage cere- 
mony, and Claverack had never ceased to feel the keen- 
est interest in Kitty Van Rensselaer and her young 
husband, and his increasing military honors. The birth 

86 




CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
Daugrhterof Colonel Johannes Van Rensselaer, the Patroon, and wife of 
General Philip tichuyler. 



VISITING SPONSORS. 



of her children and their prospects in life, and their 
various personalities, for the Schuyler children often 
visited their grandfather at the Lower Manor, were 
matters of neighborhood gossip. 

Their mother had been beautiful as a girl, when she 
won the name of "The Morning Star." Her own 
daughters inherited her beauty. All this was an old 
but never wearisome story, but when General Schuy- 
ler and his wife came to the Lower Manor and served 
as sponsors for their nephews and nieces after the war, 
there was an added element of interest, for Mrs Schuy- 
ler had not only proved herself a most courageous and 
capable General's wife, but she had been a heroine as 
well. 

Their home at Saratoga had been in the path of the 
British army. The cruel murder of Jenny McCrea 
was in every one's mouth, but Catherine Schuyler de- 
termined to save what she could of the things which 
were dear to her at her country home. Leaving Al- 
bany in her coach, in spite of persuasions to the con- 
trary, she started with only one armed escort on her 
perilous journey. On the road she met with fugitives 
who urged her to turn back, but her answer had been, 

87 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

" A General's wife should know no fear." 

At Saratoga the summer harvest was ripe. The 
fields presented a beautiful sight of waving grain. Gen- 
eral Schuyler had warned her not to let anything of 
value fall into the hands of the advancing army. With 
a pang at her heart she gave directions to the tenants 
to fire their fields, and then went with her negro ser- 
vant through the broad expanse of the home farm. It 
is said that the negro was afraid to set torch to the 
fields, and gathering all her strength Mrs. Schuyler 
threw the burning torches herself into her own grain 
at different points, and in a short time the fields lay 
shorn of their beauty, a charred and smouldering 
stretch of country. 

With such valuables as she could carry, she re- 
turned to Albany where she arrived safely. Her fear- 
lessness in this exploit and her ability to obey her su- 
perior in command in the face of great danger, won for 
her many encomiums, and the congregation at Claver- 
ack felt a special proprietorship in her bravery. 

At times it was the Dominie's pew which was the 
center of attraction at the opening of the service, and 
when the time for baptism came, the Dominie's wife 

88 



VISITING SPONSORS. 



held in her arms a little son, while at her side stood the 
baby's Uncle John Roush of Philadelphia for whom 
he was named, or at a little later date Mr. Charles Seitz 
and his wife Charlotte Carver, also among the early- 
settlers of Philadelphia, had come the same distance to 
be present at the baptism of another of their sister's 
children, this child also being named for a Philadel- 
phia uncle. The beautiful christening robes with their 
vines and wreaths and flowers of the finest embroid- 
ery, the blankets to be wrapped about the baby in the 
cold church, the little caps, yellow with age, with 
iheir inset lace and many shir-strings, and the most 
exquisite of all the fine needlework of the day, — which 
have come down to us, almost picture the dimpling 
babies within their folds, and tell stories of the long 
country afternoons, with the sound of bees and rust- 
ling leaves, the odor of orchards and flower gardens, 
the prattle of children playing in the hay, and cows 
coming home through the meadows. What a wealth 
of life experiences went into the fashioning of the little 
garments, from the first stitch to the christening day, 
and with what heart-throes were they laid in the cedar 
chests, to wait for the grandchildren ! 

89 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 



The procession of babies moved on week by week, 
and year by year, till Catherine Van Rensselaer Schuy- 
ler's eldest daughter, Angelica Schuyler, and her En- 
glish husband John Barker Church, came down in 
Henry I. Van Rensselaer's sloop, the " Angelica " or 
their chariot, on a hazy September day, to Claverack 
Manor, and on the following Sunday stood up with lit- 
tle Angelica Van Rensselaer, the infant daughter of 
Robert Van Rensselaer and Corneha Rutsen. It prob- 
ably did not detract from the attraction of this young 
Albany couple in the eyes of the country youths and 
maidens, that the}^ had been the principal actors in a 
notable elopement, in which they had evaded even the 
stern eye of General Schuyler, until the nuptial knot 
was tied at the house of the young Patroon of the Van 
Rensselaer Manor at Albany. Morrises and Van Cort- 
landts, De Peysters and Pattersons, Bayards and Nich- 
dIs, Gouverneurs and LeRoys and Alexanders all came 
from the outer world of cities and affairs, to stand up 
with the Claverack babies as the years went by, while 
the Dominie pronounced the blessings of the conve- 
nant over the heads of the baptized children, and the 
sponsors promised with their parents, to see that the 

90 



VISITING SPONSORS. 



children were "piously and religiously educated." 

These baptism days were also festival occasions, and 
only second to the wedding days of the congregation. 
The gathering of friends from far and near witnessed 
wonders of culinary skill in great house and farm 
house alike, and the feasts spread before the visitors 
were long remembered by the departing guests, as the 
incoming tide of story and adventure, public affairs 
and family news, were valued by the host and hostess, 
and their growing families of boys and girls. 

A tangible sign which has come down from these hap- 
py reunions, is the baptism spoon which was presented 
to the baby by the god-parent, in honor of the name the 
child bore. The baptism spoons were smaller, but car- 
ried a greater charm in their shallow bowls, than the 
larger funeral spoons or the rings which were present- 
ed to the bearers at funerals in those days. 

It has been said of these times, that "marriages, bap- 
tisms and funerals were celebrated with great care and 
formality, and no more serious offence could be given 
than to neglect to invite to them anyone entitled to 
come, or a neglect of the invitation." 



91 



CHAPTER XI. 
STORIES OF THE POST ROAD. 

The journey was a long one from Philadelphia or 
New York either by land or water, but by sloop there 
was the panorama of the beautiful Hudson, New York 
and West Point, Newburgh and Kingston, all of them 
important in the civil and military happenings of the 
time, while by stage-coach one found the stage-driver 
familiar with every rod of the way, and the stories of 
the whole post road, the latest marriage in one great 
house and its grandeur, the achievements in war or 
State of the men of another Manor, and the beauty of 
its women, or (told with lowered and sepulchral voice) 
the story of the ghost that was supposed to haunt 
one of the Manor Houses after the mysterious death of 
a beautiful young wife. At Montgomery Place be- 
tween Barrytown and Rhinebeck, General Montgom- 
ery's widow had built a beautiful mansion after her 
husband's tragic death. At another place near the 

92 



STORIES OF THE POST ROAD. 

same village, afterward occupied by his brother-in-law 
Peter R. Livingston, the stage driver pointed out 
Montgomery's \villow,a large tree that had grown 
from a twig playfully stuck in the ground by General 
Montgomery on a visit to a neighbor, a day or two be- 
fore he started for Canada. As he planted the twig, he 
had remarked, " Let it grow to remember me by." 

With a wave of his whip as the stage neared Cler- 
mont, with special attention to the youth favored with 
a place beside him on the driver's seat, the genial Jehu 
would chuckle over the fact that Edward Livingston, 
the growing statesman, had been a boy at home, ow- 
ing to the closing of his school at Kingston, when his 
mother's and Chancellor Livingston's houses were 
burned during the war, and enjoyed the excitement, and 
go on to tell of his eighteen mile walks to and from 
Kingston, Saturdays and Mondays, while school was 
in session, "short miles coming home, long miles go- 
ing back," he would shrewdly add. 

Or, if at a little later date, the history of Edward 
Livingston would pass that of growth into large at- 
tainment, as the eminent lawyer and Judge of the Su- 
preme Court, and later Mayor of New York, "He is 

93 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

the greatest statesman of his day, men say" the stage 
driver would assert, and perhaps some occupant of the 
stage would carry the information further, for stage 
travelers were sociable on their long journeys. "Living- 
ston is a great linguist, and his house in New York has 
become the gathering place of many celebrated visitors 
to our country." His personal qualities were also called 
in review with feelings of pleasure, his keen sense 
of humor which made him a delightful companion, and 
his warm-hearted beneficence, and love of his fellow 
men, which kept him in New York during the scourge 
of yellow fever in 1803, doing everything possible to 
prevent the spread of the disease, and for the comfort 
of the sick and the poor under these trying circum- 
stances. At the close of his self-sacrificing devotion, 
he was taken with the disease himself, but owing to 
his strong constitution his life was saved. 

This was apt to be followed by a eulogy on brave 
Margaret Beekman, Edward's mother, who would take 
no help from the wounded Tory soldiers in her home, 
and who, after they were safely disposed of elsewhere, 
could still courageously laugh at the ludicrous appear- 
ance of an old black woman, perched on top of a cart 

94 



STORIES OF THE POST ROAD. 

full of family possessions, moving away from the 
doomed house. As soon as the danger was over Mrs. 
Livingston rebuilt her house on the old foundations. 
There was also the locust tree still standing, which 
had been partly carried away by the cannon ball fired 
at the house by the British soldiers before they landed. 
The " Hermitage " begun on a grand scale by 
Peter R. Livingston before the Revolution and 
never finished, but in one of whose quaint rooms 
the historian William Smith, a brother-in-law of 
the owner wrote a portion of the history of New 
York, attracted the traveler's eye. Beautiful 
" Teviotdale " stood on an elevation between 
Kleina and Roeloflf Jansen Kills, a massive build- 
ing sixty feet square, several stories high, and 
with dormer windows. After a time they would reach 
a point opposite the old Manor House to which the 
title really belonged, the road to which the post-road 
crossed. It was situated on a grassy spot on the banks 
of the Hudson, environed with grape vines, bowers, 
and gigantic trees, near the mouth and upon the north 
side of Roeloff Jansen Kill ,which is now usually call- 
ed Livingston creek. The original Livingston Manor 

95 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

House was still standing in 1799, a hundred years old, 
but it was burned a few years later. 

The tales of the lordly manner of life in the days of 
the first Lord, that Philip the son of the second Lord 
Philip, was a Signer of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, and William, another son was the patriotic Gov- 
ernor of New Jersey with many pretty daughters, en- 
tertained many miles of the road through the Livings- 
ton country. Patriotic Sarah Livingston was also a 
daughter of the second Lord of Livingston Manor, 
and she, too, had her story. She was the wife of Ma- 
jor-General Alexander, (Earl of Sterling) and accom- 
panied her husband to camp at White Plains. Later 
she made a visit to New York accompanied by her 
daughter, Lady Catherine Alexander. It was at this 
time that she refused, even with the permission of Sir 
William Clinton, to take so much as a box of tea out 
of the city, which was under the rule of the British. 
She was also a loyal member of the Dutch Reformed 
Church, and as benevolent to the poor and needy, as 
she was patriotic. 

As they approached Germantown the settlement of 
the Palatines became the topic of conversation. Many 

96 



STORIES OF THE POST ROAD. 

of these settlers had been drawn from Livingston 
Manor with its life leases, to the brighter prospects of 
perpetual leases on the Lower Van Rensselaer Manor 
at Claverack. 

For these people, refugees from the Lower Palatin- 
ate in Germany, who had served in Queen Anne's arm- 
ies, and had asked her aid, being driven from their 
homes by the ravages of the French, the Queen of 
England had attempted to provide homes upon her 
American possessions. 

Governor Hunter had purchased a tract of land for 
the Queen from Robert Livingston in 1710, and the 
Palatines soon followed, settling on both the east and 
the west sides of the river. These settlements were in 
the nature of camps, which later gave them the names 
of East and West Camp. The camps on the east side 
which occupied the Livingston land, were named 
" Annsberg, for Queen Ann, Haysberg, for Lady Hay, 
wife of Governor Hunter; Hunterstown for the Gov- 
ernor himself; and Queensbury in still further honor 
of the crown." 

The Palatines were not all an ignorant class of peo- 
ple. Many of them had come, as one of their descend- 

97 

8 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

ants has said, with their Bibles and prayer books, ex- 
pecting from the contracts signed in England, to have 
a small separate tract of land for each household, up- 
on which they would be able to build homes of their 
own, and support their families, this land to be paid 
for at the end of seven years in lumber, tar, hemp, and 
the yield of the ground. Instead of this they had 
found themselves in the position of vassals, "slaves" 
they called themselves, bound to work at tar-making 
for life, and already the most intelligent among them 
were suspecting that the tar-making was a failure. At 
last their superiors discovered it also, and the Pala- 
tines left free to choose their own homes, scattered in 
large numbers to Schoharie and Claverack, where the 
opportunities offered to new settlers were a great im- 
provement on those of the "camps." The few remain- 
ing families of the Palatines were allowed to settle 
on the land as farmers, and East Camp was known in 
time as Germantown. 

If, for a time, his horses occupied the loquacious 
stage driver, there were sights and sounds in plenty to 
attract the travelers. Clover fields abounded all along 
beautiful Claverack creek, and the apples and plums 

98 



STORIES OF THE POST ROAD. 

and pears in their season filled the air with an aro- 
matic odor. 

Dutch house-wives were fond of bordering their 
vegetable beds with flower edges. Clove pinks and 
marigolds, tulips and tiger lilies, larkspur and phlox, 
wound their way in serpentine lines about homelier 
growths, while each side of the long path from the 
swinging gate to the front door, syringas and spice 
bushes, flaxinella and lilacs drew the guest with a 
breath of the gods, and generously swept their sweet 
odors over the garden fences, to the passing way-farer. 
And so the traveler was welcomed to Claverack, in 
the church and the homes, by Dominie and congrega- 
tion, and also in the pleasant sights and mellifluous 
odors of Clover-reach, while the coaches which passed 
the Claverack doors, bearing from city to city, the 
men of the day in their high hats and the ladies 
in flaring bonnets and floating veils, with the blowing 
horn of the driver, and the spurts with other teams 
along the road, formed a large part of the excitement 
of Claverack life. 



99 



CHAPTER XII. 
VISITS FROM JOHN JACOB ASTOR. 

With the close of the war the German Reformed 
Church in New York of which Dominie Gebhard had 
been pastor, gathered once more its scattered congre- 
gation, and with one accord sent a call to their old 
minister at Claverack to return to his former charge. 
But the life of the young clergymen had sent out many 
tendrils since the day in which he left New York city, 
not knowing where in the future would be his abiding 
place. At that time he had two children, now he was 
the father of five, four boys and one little daughter, 
Charlotte, born four years previous. There was the 
Seminary which he had been the means of founding, 
the out-lying churches which depended on his occa- 
sional ministrations, and to whom his coming was as a 
torch that shed the light of the Gospel into the weeks 
barren of religious service or Sacrament. 

Beside all this, there existed his own extensive con- 

100 



VISITS FROM JOHN JACOB ASTOR. 

gregation nearer home, with whom there had been 
formed close ties in these years of anxiety and danger. 
The parsonage and the glebe land were dear to his 
Pennsylvania wife, and healthful for his children, and 
once more as in the first instance, he believed that God 
had called him, this time to stay where his feet had 
been planted, and regretfully he declined the call to 
return to his old flock. 

Yet though he decided to stay in Claverack, his 
heart turned with eager interest toward the future of 
his early charge. New members were being added to 
the New York church, with the changing population 
of the town, and the greater facilities for immigration 
now that the war was over. Baron Steuben joined 
himself to the congregation so soon as it gathered 
itself together once more, remaining a faithful attend- 
ant on its services when in New York, so long as his 
life lasted. At his death in 1795 a tablet was placed in 
the church to his memory, stating at the close of a 
long and impressive inscription, that it was given by 
"An American who had the honor to be his Aide-de- 
camp, and the happiness to be his Friend." 

In the many changes of location that this church has 

101 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

undergone, in its more than a century of existence 
since his death, the tablet to Baron Steuben has al- 
ways been carried with them, and in the one hundred 
and fiftieth anniversary of the church held recently at 
its present location in East 68th St., the tablet to Baron 
Steuben, America's friend of Revolutionary days, 
vied in interest with the bell presented by Kaiser Wil- 
liam in honor of the celebration. There was also an- 
other feature of this occasion which connected with 
the past history of the church. Rev. John G. Gebhard, 
D. D., a great grandson of their old minister, partici- 
pated in the anniversary ceremonies, while in the 
audience were Karl and John G. Gebhard, Jr., the 
fifth generation in descent from the old Dominie. 

A still more important member, in the opinion 
of the family at the Claverack parsonage, was added 
to the New York church about 1784, in the person of 
John Jacob Astor, a young German from Waldorf in 
the Duchy of Baden, the home town of Dominie Geb- 
hard. 

Letters had been few and far between during the 
years of the war. Many a heart hungered for news 
of friends bound to them by close family ties, though 

102 



VISITS FROM JOHN JACOB ASTOR. 

the ocean rolled between. A year earlier a letter from 
Germany had reached the Claverack parsonage 
through the good offices of Benjamin Franklin, the 
writer being the Dominie's younger brother, Ludwig. 
The letter referred to the Dominie's loss of property 
through the war, but his happiness, nevertheless, in 
founding an institution of learning. It also told of 
the marrying and scattering to Zelt, Rotterdam, 
Frankfort, and Strassburg of the various brothers and 
sisters and their children, and their material welfare. 

A touch of pathos blends with humor in the naive 
remark of the young brother who writes, " Our 
mother is still living. Do you remember, my dear 
brother, when we took leave of each other in Bingen, 
how our dear mother wept, and asked you what she 
was to do with me. Now you can see that it is never 
well to despair." There is a suggestion of coming to 
America, when peace is declared, if the mother gives 
her consent, with articles of merchandise sent by Ger- 
man merchants, and a return cargo of American pro- 
ducts. Such letters, taking one back to the hearth- 
stones of the faraway homes, must have warmed the 
heart of the wanderer even though the new home was 

103 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

becoming dearer each year. With warm German affec- 
tion the letter closes, "Farewell to you and your deaf 
family. I kiss you all in spirit, and remain for all time. 
"Your Faithful Brother, 

"LUDWIG GEBHARD," 
"Strassburg, Jan. 22nd, 1783." 

But when John Jacob Astor raised the brass knock- 
er of the old parsonage door, he outstripped the most 
vividly written letter, with his late personal contact 
with all that had been familiar and dear in the Domi- 
nie's youth. 

Young Astor entered into the fur business immedi- 
ately on his arrival in New York, and in a short time 
was making trips for his master to Montreal, the chief 
fur-market of the country. With a pack on his back 
he struck into the wilderness above Albany, but going 
or coming he was quite sure to stop off at Claverack 
Landing, or sometimes tramp along the Albany road 
direct to the parsonage gate. 

Those were great visits, in which old and young had 
their own favorite theme of conversation. The boys 
were never late to supper the nights that John Astor 
came. Neither fishing, swimming, nutting nor gun- 

104 



VISITS FROM JOHN JACOB ASTOR. 

ning in its season, held a superior charm to the 
stories of adventure in the fur-trade to the Gebhard 
boys. Logs were piled on the open fire in the great 
fire-place on cool evenings, and bed-time v^as ignored 
even by the practical mother, v^^hile the boys' eyes 
grew large and starry, as the young fur-merchant told 
of the dangers of the wild lands in northern and west- 
ern New York, where untamed animals abounded, of 
meetings with Indian chiefs, of baskets of toys or 
sometimes cakes, that would buy valuable skins, of 
the bogs that had delayed his journeys, or floating 
bridges with wide spaces between the logs, over which 
he and his pack must go in safety. There were his canoe 
trips up Lake George, and embarking again, on to the 
head of Lake Champlain, which held the boys' undi- 
vided attention. His companion on these occasions 
was an Indian paddler and guide; and again when the 
pelts were secured Indians transported them to the 
head of the Hudson where they were sent on sloops to 
New York. 

Sometimes the Gebhard boys knew of some skins 
among the country lads, and young Astor picked up 



105 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

even at Claverack, a small addition to his stock in 
trade. 

But the conversation did not always turn on the 
American w^ilderness, or its fur-bearing animals, or 
trade in skins. After the little ones were tucked in 
their trundle-beds, the older boys and the Dominie's 
wife sat by, while the two men talked of the home of 
their boyhood across the sea. Every man, woman, and 
child in the little village of Waldorf was familiar to 
them both, but Dominie Gebhard had left home twelve 
years before, so the younger man brought with him a 
fund of information full of a living interest. 

John Jacob Astor had been the son of the village 
market-man, while Dominie Gebhard had been the 
minister's son, though his father had died when he was 
twelve years old, yet life in the German village had 
presented many similar duties and pleasures to each. 
Both boys had studied the catechism with great care 
under the village pastor, and after being examined 
walked to church in a procession, the girls in white 
and the boys in their best suits. After this came the 
rite of Confirmation and the Sacrament. This was 
both a solemn and a joyous occasion which took place 

106 



VISITS FROM JOHN JACOB ASTOR. 

every two years, and for which a girl or boy was sup- 
posed to be prepared, at the age of fourteen years. 
Besides Confirmation there were three other fes- 
tival days, Baptism, Weddings and Christmas. These 
were all religious feasts, but the days ended in much 
sociability and innocent merry-making. Both of these 
young German lads also had younger brothers and sis- 
ters to care for, which all their lives made them tender 
with children. 

After Confirmation the two boys' paths lay in differ- 
ent directions. Young Gebhard's lay toward school 
and college, but John Astor's father was not able to 
meet the expense of apprenticing him to a good trade. 
This however did not deter the boy. He did not mean 
to carry on his father's business, and kept his eyes 
open and his mind alert to find an opening in life to 
his taste. Here again the two young German youths 
had been moved by the same impulse, the love of ad- 
venture, and the desire to see the " New Land" across 
the sea. When young Gebhard left home, John Jacob 
was eight years old. Doubtless he had seen many 
other youths depart from the little German village. 
One of his own brothers had gone to America, and an- 

107 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

other to England. 

John Astor meant to go too, and one day when he 
was nearly seventeen he started. No matter how un- 
easy a boy is at home, when he makes his first attempt 
to leave it, its value enhances by the hour, and a lump 
in his throat is quite sure to go with the young travel' 
er, and spoil the first part of the journey. So it was 
with John Jacob Astor when he set out on foot one 
morning, a bundle of clothes on a stick over his shoul- 
der, a crown or two in his pocket, to walk to the Rhine 
a few miles distant. Instead of a joyous journey tow- 
ard the desire of his heart, it bid fair to be a dismal 
path of homesickness, until sitting down under a tree 
to rest as the morning advanced, he made some resolu- 
tions which gave him a grip on his melting feelings, 
and no doubt later on, a firm grasp on the best things 
of life. 

These resolutions were three in number, "to be hon- 
est, industrious, and not to gamble." At this point he 
was likely to turn his eyes keenly on the boys before 
him, knowing that these were good resolutions for 
boys on both sides of the sea. 

After this he went on with better courage. It was 

108 



VISITS FROM JOHN JACOB ASTOR. 

the portion of the story which followed, which always 
held the Gebhard boys' most eager attention. 

Part of the great Black Forest is in Baden. The 
timber cut in the forest was formed into rafts, and 
rowed by sixty or eighty men or strong boys down the 
Rhine. These raftsmen were boarded during the jour- 
ney, and paid ten dollars in money at its end. Many 
voyagers bound for the "New Land," earned their way 
to the coast in this fashion. John Jacob Astor resolved 
to do this and also earn his passage to England, and 
though it was hard work and three hundred miles to 
the coast, he accomplished his purpose. It required 
fourteen days to reach a Dutch sea-port, but the days, 
and even the nights, were made merry by songs and 
jests, from the hopeful and adventurous young lum- 
bermen. John Jacob Astor reached port with a larger 
sum of money than he had ever possessed before. Here 
he took passage for London where an older brother 
had preceded him, and was at that time engaged in 
manufacturing musical instruments. 

In London he worked hard and saved money, and 
learned English at the same time, gaining all the infor- 
mation possible about America, while he waited for the 

109 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

war to be over. At last he set sail, after word of the trea- 
ty of peace had reached London, bringing seven flutes 
with him for sale, and his savings for the years he had 
been in England, which were about five pounds in 
money. Each step of.the way had called for courage 
and perseverb,nce. Even within a day of port the 
wind died away, and the cold grew intense, so that the 
ship was frozen in a field of ice for two months. 

But this final misfortune was the means of starting 
young Astor on his life work, and the after ac- 
cumulation of his large fortune, for stranded in the 
same ship was a young fur-dealer, and in the long and 
wearisome days of waiting, while food gave out and 
money grew scarce, the two young men formed a 
friendship, during which time they confided ♦^o 
each other their previous life stories. It was 
from this ice-bound companion that Astor learned 
the possibilities of the fur trade, and day by day a 
hundred practical facts on hunting, bartering, cur- 
ing, keeping and selling skins. It was a two months' 
schooling in preparation for his life-work, with an en- 
thusiastic teacher who had just successfully carried 
through a sale of skins in England. 

110 



VISITS FROM JOHN JACOB ASTOR. 

Small wonder that the young man with stories of 
the Black Forest and lumber camps, Indian adven- 
tures, wild animals, and successful feats of bartering, 
was a welcome guest at the parsonage,or that the boys 
were wont to scan the length of the Albany road at 
nightfall, for a sturdy figure with a pack on his back, 
many a day before the young German came, counting 
his visits as festival occasions. Their father had 
a still greater regard for these stops by the way, add- 
ing to the mutual interests and sympathies of the past, 
the fact that John Jacob Astor soon became a member 
of the Consistory of the New York church, and its for- 
mer minister and the new member of its governing 
body, found much in common in discussing the growth 
and prosperity of this well-loved organization. 



Ill 



CHAPTER XIII. 

CHURCH CUSTOMS ONE HUNDRED 
YEARS AGO. 

The oldest of the Record books of the Claverack 
church, is bound in parchment, and tied with soft skin 
cords, and bears on its cover the inscription, 
" KIRK EN DORP BOEK, 
KLAVERACK 
I 727- I 789. 
and on its title page, " Glory to God forever." 

It records among other matters of note, that during 
the building of the church in Dominie Fryenmoet's 
time, 1767, payment was made for seats through pre- 
vious work on, or for, the new building, " breaking 
stone, riding stone, ditching the foundaments of the 
church, cutting fire wood, cutting timber," etc. So 
ttiuch a matter of heart-interest was this building of 
the church by personal effort, that the record of the 
first "stick of timber " contributed, has been kept. As 

112 



CHURCH CUSTOMS. 



in many other instances, the first offering did not come 
from the nearest members, but over the road several 
miles away, from what is now Greenport, Joris Decker 
wheeled his "stick of timber," quite possibly prepared 
with his own hands from the felling of the tree, to the 
final delivery on the site of the new church building. 
That others followed heartily in Joris Decker's foot- 
steps, was proved by the finished edifice a little later. 

Seats began to be rented for money in a few months. 
Dominie Fryenmoet's call was to the three churches of 
Kinderhook, Claverack and Livingston Manor, each of 
which had its separate consistory. Although Dominie 
Gebhard preached upon occasion at Livingston, and 
baptized and married many of that congregation in its 
pastorless seasons, the Livingston Manor Church was 
not under the charge of the pastor of the Claverack 
church at this time. 

Ministers' salaries of those days were not large, and 
the salary of the minister of the Claverack church nev- 
er exceeded one hundred and fifty pounds a year, but 
with the aid of a small patrimon}'^ and the assistance 
of a most capable wife, Dominie Gebhard was enabled 
to give seven sons a classical and professional educa- 

113 
9 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

tion. This was no doubt made possible by the pur- 
chase of a farm near the Stone Mills. Upon this place 
he erected a plant for extracting oil from the castor 
bean, for which he received a patent. A little stream 
running through the grounds was utilized to run the 
mill, and crops of castor beans were raised here annu- 
ally, as well as in the parsonage garden. 

Some old papers give points as to the payment of 
the minister's salary. The members of the congrega- 
tion were supposed to contribute pounds or shillings 
according to their ability for seat rent, and loads of 
wood or bushels of wheat additional, for the parson- 
age use. It is noticeable in the accounts which have 
been preserved, that the loads of wood were generous- 
ly given, but the bushels of wheat do not appear, bush- 
els of rye or corn sometimes taking their place. Since 
wheat was already called for by the Patroon, as rent, 
it is hardly probable that a third division of small 
crops was compatible with home consumption. 

Dominie Gebhard not only preached in Dutch in his 
Claverack church, but also in German and occasionally 
in English. The English sermons, however, were read 
from a manuscript, while in Dutch and German he 

X14 



CHURCH CUSTOMS. 



preached extemporaneously. The record of the text of 
the first English sermon has been preserved as taken 
from Revelation i : 7. Since this was the third language 
in which he had been called upon to preach since land- 
ing in America, it was a noteworthy text and sermon. 

Upon his arrival in Claverack he found the congre- 
gation divided over the erection of the new church, 
and some of the members still worshiped in the little 
old frame building, which stood near the spot where 
the Court House was afterward built, but by frequent 
calls and pacific intervention, he poured oil on the 
troubled waters, and at last drew the divided congre- 
gation together once more. 

Sunday collections were recorded in columns devot- 
ed to "paper money," "silver," and "coppers," and in 
this same connection were headlines portioning space 
for "Money for the poor of the Kirk." 

In these records names of Philip, Delamater, Harder, 
Snyder, Smith, Van Deusen, Stupplebeen, Miller, Gaul, 
Ten Broeck, Skinkle, Storm, Williams, Best, Moul, 
Ludlow, Van Allen, Van de Kar, Van Rensselaer, Bay, 
Leggett, Kittle, Monel, Milham, Sagendorph, Morris, 
Van Ness, Rowley, Mesick, Hogeboom, Esselstyn, 

115 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

Shumacher, Lant, Hoffman, and Rossman abound, 
often five, six or more heads of families of the same 
name, or sons of one family following each other in a 
line. 

Seats in church were allotted to each family with the 
number of sittings mentioned. "John Bay 7 seats; 
Philip Harder No. 44, 2 seats ; No. 42 reserved for Rev. 
Mr. Gebhard ; Stephen Hogeboom 7 seats ; Stephen 
Miller 4 seats." 

Two candidates were always presented in the elec- 
tion of deacons and elders. Both were placed upon 
record, and the number of votes received by each, indi- 
cated by successive credit marks after their respective 
names. When a member of Consistory was absent 
without a reasonable excuse from Consistory Meeting, 
he was fined one dollar. 

A touch of brotherly kindness sometimes found its 
way into the records, as proved by the statement that 
the Consistory had made a "wood bee" for the Domi- 
nie. 

Peter and Etje Hogeboom, twins, were baptized Au- 
gust 30th, 1795 with two sets of sponsors. They were 
apparently christened the day they were born. In- 

U6 



CHURCH CUSTOMS. 



deed, from some closely connecting dates, it would 
seem that infants were often baptized at home, or on 
the festival days of the church. It must have been a 
usual sight to see the Dominie sally forth, prayer-book 
in hand, almost any morning of the year, to the house 
of a member of his congregation, where he was met by 
friends of the family ready to stand as god-father and 
god-mother for the little stranger. As these bap- 
tisms took place with great regularity when the infant 
was two weeks old, or a month at the latest, it would 
be inferred that the failure to present the child in 
church, did not suggest any negligence on the part of 
parents, or friends. However, in the time of Dominie 
Gebhard's English associate, it was expressly "re- 
solved that infants shall be baptized in church, if both 
parents are able to come, and the child. If not, one or 
more elders shall attend." 

For thirty-three years William Van Ness led the 
singing of the Claverack church, a commentary on the 
migratory nature of choirs to-day. In this same con- 
nection it was also "resolved that the Clerk of Consis- 
tory take his place immediately by the pupit, and pitch 
the tune and take the lead in singing the Psalm, and 

117 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

that he ring the bell, keep the Deacon's records, shut 
the church, and provide the water to be used in bap- 
tism," for all of which he received thirty dollars a year. 
Divine service was to commence precisely at ten 
o'clock A. M. and after one hour of intermission the 
afternoon service began. The hour's intermission gave 
opportunity for partaking of a hearty lunch, and re- 
plenishing the little foot-stoves at the parsonage fire. 
Every wagon driving to church on Sunday morning, 
contained one or more of these little stoves, with their 
wooden frames and metal sides pierced with many 
holes. The door at one side allowed of the slipping in 
of a small fire pan, while a wire handle made it possi- 
ble to carry the tiny furnaces safely. These little com- 
forters traveled to church not only in the wagons com- 
ing from the farm houses, but also in the coaches from 
the Manor Houses, and women and maidens who walk- 
ed over the snow-trodden paths on foot, came swinging 
their little foot-stoves in the icy air. It was considered 
a great innovation when, after 1800, a tin plated box- 
stove stood on its tall legs in the very center of the 
church, its long pipe going out of the window. This 
moderated the freezing atmosphere beyond the radius 

118 



CHURCH CUSTOMS. 



of the foot stoves, but it was still common to see one's 
breath in the air during the winter months. 

The sands of the hour glass on the pulpit desk ran 
many races with Jack Frost as he nipped the fingers 
and toes of both Dominie and congregation. Preach- 
ing and listening both required courage in those days, 
and our fore-fathers surely did not expect to be "car- 
ried to the skies on flowery beds of ease." 

The Dominie added teaching the catechism to the 
children of the church, to his other duties, though 
it is probable that this catechetical examination took 
place on Saturday afternoon, and was not a part of the 
Sunday service. 

It seems to have been the custom of minister and 
elders to make a round of calls on every family in the 
congregation prior to the Communion of the Lord's 
Supper. On these visitations delinquents were dealt 
with, new members gathered into the fold, and occa- 
sionally votes were taken as to the sense of the con- 
gregation on important matters, members of the 
church signing their names with a mark distinguishing 
them from those who were simply supporters. 

It was a custom of the times to add to each baptis- 

119 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

mal record in the family Bible, the name of the officiat- 
ing clergyman, also the name of the minister perform- 
ing the marriage ceremonies recorded in the same 
book. The Claverack Bibles, both Dutch and English, 
for many years bore the name of Dominie Gebhard re- 
peated many times down these long lists of vital sta- 
tistics. 

So the years went by with a hundred aims and occu- 
pations, secular and religious, but through them all 
wove the golden thread of sacramental service, claimed 
by the people and given freely by the pastor, a draw- 
ing of heavenly things into the life of a wide-sweeping 
territory. 



120 



CHAPTER XIV. 

LIFE AT THE PARSONAGE. 

By 1800 the parsonage was full of children, and 
some of them grown to young manhood had left the 
home nest, and were writing back of the events of the 
outside world. The eldest son Jacob, lately admitted 
to the bar, wrote from Philadelphia in 1795 relative to 
the Connecticut claims on Susquehannah Lands, 
boundaries and titles and land claims occupying a 
large amount of legal attention in those days. In this 
case the charge of District Judge Patterson, formerly 
Governor of New Jersey, "was considered one of the 
most eminent ever delivered in this city," the young 
man wrote. "Titles, and Charter, and the Indian 
deed upon which the Connecticut claim rested, were 
esteemed as nothing" — Mulenburgh, the Speaker in 
Congress, told the young man that "there was little 
hope of Jay's return till the following October, the ex- 
pected treaty to be sent over, not having arrived be- 

121 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

fore the rising of Congress." 

Matters of public interest were laid aside to speak of 
a prescription sent to Claverack by the celebrated Dr. 
Rush. The writer says he was told that it was a sim- 
ple medicine, but it would be well to let Dr. Monell, 
the family physician, see it. Dr. Rush had written 
with the prescription, that "he felt himself very much 
honored by the application from so great a distance." 
Those were evidently days in which the home practi- 
tioner sat in judgment on the city physician's advice, 
rather than followed with open admiration the spec- 
ialist's skill. There were family remembrances to old 
and young, in which the Philadelphia relatives were 
each represented, ending with the word from the child 
in the Philadelphia family to the little girl in the par- 
sonage. "Polly Seitz wants to see Charlotte down 
very much," and ending with the respect of the per- 
iod. 

"Your son and humble servant, 

"JACOB GEBHARD." 

For many years only one little girl had made merry 
in the old parsonage, with seven brothers. It is small 
wonder that she was a great favorite with her parents 

122 



LIFE AT THE PARSONAGE. 



and the older children. The congregation named her 
atTectionately "the Dominie's laughing daughter," and 
the chronicles of the time speak of her as "very active 
and sprightly with a vein of mischief in her composi- 
tion." It had been customary occasionally to name a 
baby in some of the families of the church after the 
Dominie or his wife, for whom they were sponsors, 
and as Charlotte grew up she was admitted into this 
form of spiritual friendship. The name of Charlotte 
became a favorite among the mothers, and the Domi- 
nie's daughter stood as god-mother to many little girls 
named after her. 

On his long rides to the outlying churches, her fath- 
er delighted to take her with him, and we can imagine 
the digniiied clergyman of the old school, and his sun- 
ny-faced daughter as they rode through the spring 
sunshine, over the wagon-roads and through the 
woods, that led to the churches of the tiny set- 
tlements. We know that she sometimes wore a white- 
corded dimity, sprinkled over with purple tulips, short 
waisted and low-necked, and it is not difficult to be- 
lieve that the Dominie on his country rounds was 
doubly welcome when he brought his fair young 

123 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

daughter with him. A busy and useful daughter she 
needed to be also, with so many boys in the family, 
and within a year a new baby had come to gladden the 
home. After eighteen years, there was a second girl 
in the parsonage, who proved to be the last of the 
Dominie's children. 

Deft of finger and quick of motion, Charlotte was 
her mother's right hand in all household matters. 
Spinning and weaving were a constant part of the 
day's work in such a home, or how would so many 
boys have obtained their homespun suits of pepper 
and salt. Knitting long stockings, too, was among the 
day's tasks, but that could be done in the firelight, 
while the boys were studying their lessons after sup- 
per, in front of the brightly blazing pine knots. 

There had been long patient hours in the chimney 
corner, or out on the porch when she was a thirteen 
year old girl, at which time she made her sampler as 
all children did at that day. She learned in this way to 
make perfect marking letters, with which the family 
linen had been marked ever since. Such a sampler 
had woven into it a hundred experiences, and some 
tears. It was not easy to sit still and work her stint 

124 



LIFE AT THE PARSONAGE. 



when the sun shone, and the birds sang, and all the 
sweet voices and odors of spring and summer invited 
her out of doors, nor yet when the boys teased as boys 
always will at times. But when her mother was mak- 
ing olekoeks in the kitchen, and the delicious smell 
was wafted in to her, with the promise of a large 
round doughnut when her stint was done, or when she 
and a neighbor's little girl sat on the porch steps to- 
gether, and ran a race making a letter, even a sampler 
had its charms. There was also the end to look for- 
ward to, when the alphabet large and small was fin- 
ished, and the numerals beside, and even her own 
name and age, and the year the sampler was complet- 
ed, and one might fill out the remaining space with an 
imaginary house, with chimney and doors, bedsteads 
and chairs, and even trees in the door yard in front. 
This was the reward at the end of hundreds of pains- 
taking stitches. 

But at eighteen Charlotte could assist at the Satur- 
day's baking, helping her mother and their slave girl 
Nan make pies and cake and bread, a feast for an 
army, it seemed, for the boys had great appetites, and 
the parsonage kept open doors for its many visitors. 

125 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

Katee, the slave boy, was called in from the garden on 
Saturday mornings to turn the spit before the great 
oven, and lay the logs in the fire place in the parlor, 
for the best room at the parsonage was sure to be used 
on Sunday, no matter how carefully it was kept closed 
on week days. This also was one of Charlotte's du- 
ties, to dust the Chippendale chairs, and set every- 
thing in the room very straight and orderly. Many 
ships came and went from the near by town of Hud- 
son, which had grown out of the hamlet at Claverack 
Landing, since the Quaker settlers came from Nan- 
tucket, and nearly every home was adorned with beau- 
tiful pink-lined shells, and curios brought from distant 
ports by the sailors. 

The heavy wooden bookcase, with its double doors, 
and long narrow hinges, and wooden buttons top and 
bottom, shut in the Dominie's hoarded treasures of 
books, — many of them brought from Holland, and 
Germany, and France, — away from any contaminating 
contact. Charlotte sometimes opened the doors and 
took a peep at some of the unreadable volumes, part 
of them already one and two hundred years old, rel- 
ics of her German grandfather's library, but she soon 

126 



LIFE AT THE PARSONAGE. 



tired of so uninteresting an occupation, and closed the 
doors again on the odor of print and leather. 

The large German mirror, with its rich gilt frame 
and heavy glass, was much more interesting to the 
young girl as she saw reflected there her own hazel- 
gray eyes and flaxen head of hair, — home spun dress 
and home-made shoes to be sure, — but beneath them 
both the rounded grace of girlhood. The dust-cloth 
was accustomed to many flirts at the girl in the mir- 
ror, and even a dust-cloth may feel in some occult 
way, the difference between musty books, and a pink- 
cheeked, laughing girl. 

The German piano, on which their father played 
when their mother sang German chorals, was also in 
the room, but dearer to the hearts of the children was 
the piano which their father had constructed with his 
own hands, which was kept in the living room, and 
upon which they were allowed to try their own bud- 
ding musical genius. There were but few houses of 
this date which did not boast some patriotic colored 
print, "Washington with His Family," "Washington's 
Reception in New York," or "Washington's Triumph- 
al Progress Through Trenton." The girls of Trenton 

127 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS, 

scattering flowers before the hero's feet, adorned the 
parsonage walls. 

The boys, too, had their Saturday work weeding the 
bean and vegetable gardens, churning, drawing water 
from the well with the bucket hung to the long well- 
sweep, milking, getting vegetables from cellar or gar- 
den, bringing down hams from the garret, and per- 
haps, when all other duties were faithfully accom- 
plished, there might be an opportunity for a Saturday 
half-holiday, to take a tramp into the woods with the 
sons of some neighbor to shoot wild turkeys or duck 
which were plentiful, and considered a luxury fit to 
set before the most honored guest. At night there 
would still be a trip to the stage-house, two boys on 
the old horse's back, to see if any mail had come, or 
guests expected, or unlocked for, had arrived. 

One can imagine the long line of the Dominie's chil- 
dren walking up the wagon-path to the church after 
the Sunday morning breakfast of suppawn and milk, 
and quieted to a becomingly reverential behavior for 
the sanctuary. The Dominie is said to have reviewed 
his sermon as he walked up and down the living room 
on Sunday morning, the room being also filled by a 

128 



LIFE AT THE PARSONAGE. 



half dozen children, with as many occupations, and the 
natural hilarity of a group of young people under such 
circumstances. The mother was the governing force 
among her lively group of boys and girls, and when 
the noise broke through the Dominie's meditations 
on the eighth or tenth head of his discourse, his at- 
tention being violently drawn from theology to the 
rising generation, his disturbance is said to have 
found vent in the forceful disciplinary remark, that "if 
they didn't behave and make less noise, he would call 
their mother and she would punish them all around," 
at which they settled down for a short time into com- 
parative quiet, with half audible, though smothered 
chuckles of laughter, knowing well that their mother 
would not be called. 

Among the Sunday morning baptisms particularly 
pleasing to the parsonage children and their young 
friends, were those of the tiny little colored babies, the 
children of the slaves held throughout the congrega- 
tion. There were many of these babies, often named 
for their masters and mistresses, and their sponsors 
some Pompey or Flora of a neighboring farm, or oc- 
casionally their owners acted in this capacity for the 

129 
10 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

little "niger," "nigra," or "nigri," as the records read, 
according to the number, or sex of the children. 

These slaves were also the loving caretakers of the 
wh'.te children in the Claverack homes, carrying them 
about tenderly in their dark arms, or crooning lulla- 
bies to them in the twilight. Occasionally the well- 
beloved "mammy" was an Indian squaw, and the baby 
was tied to her back instead of carried in her arms, as 
she was accustomed to do with her own pappoose. 
With their mistresses' babies on their backs, these 
squaws often scrubbed the floors in the houses, with 
long-handled brushes, and in a hundred ways were in- 
dispensable to the life of the times. 



130 



CHAPTER XV. 

LOVER'S LANES AND PARSONAGE 
WEDDINGS. 

Sunday afternoon was the great time at the parson- 
age. All day there was an atmosphere of eager ex- 
pectancy. Sometimes the Dominie was forewarned as 
to the need of his services, but often the young cou- 
ples coming to be married at this time were wholly un- 
expected, except through past experience. Groups of 
young people would appear on pleasant Sunday after- 
noons, following one another, or meeting on the par- 
sonage porch. All the roads which led to the Domi- 
nie's home were lover's lanes, and the couples who 
met each other riding in a chaise along the Albany 
road, or on the turnpike from Hudson, or walking 
through some leafy bridle-path, looked upon one an- 
other with interested eyes, the sympathy of kindred 
aims creating mutual recognition. 

Here also, the Dominie's wife proved a god-mother 

131 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

to many a young bride, with her wise counsel and 
motherly interest. The knowledge that ere they met 
the critical ordeal of the marriage ceremony, they 
would see the benign face of the Dominie's wife in 
its closely crimped cap, and her kindly eyes would 
look into theirs, and her helpful hands would come to 
their aid, smoothing rumpled finery, heartening the 
timid, rejoicing with the dominant note of happiness 
in the blushing brides and waiting grooms, made the 
path to the marriage altar a less awesome experi- 
ence, than it might otherwise have been. 

As many as six couples were often joined in wed- 
lock on one Sunday afternoon, and one is not surprised 
that the old Dutch hymn book and liturgy bound to- 
gether, should show its marriage and baptism pages 
deeply yellowed through much use,with here and there 
a torn corner of a leaf neatly sewn in place. A small 
marriage fee was required by law, but was not always 
forthcoming. The story of a young sailor who brought 
his sweetheart to be married at the parsonage, imme- 
diately before sailing for a distant port, suggests that 
the Dominie and his wife as the connecting bond in 
the life happiness of many, were remembered in the 

133 



PARSONAGE WEDDINGS. 



days of prosperity. The young sailor is said to have 
remarked, that at that time his only riches lay in hi^ 
bride, but when he came back from his voyage he 
would remember the Dominie and his wife, which 
promise he faithfully kept, bringing them a barrel of 
oranges on his return. 

These festal occasions also had their thrilling epi- 
sodes. Parental authority was exercised strictly even 
over marriage contracts, resulting many times in run- 
away matches. There were rooms in some of the 
Claverack houses, which had seen a fair damsel im- 
prisoned on bread and water, until she had consented 
to the choice of a husband, made by her father and 
mother. This form of selection of a life companion 
did not always remain unchanged after the imprison- 
ment was over, as was probably the case with the 
young woman who fled precipitantly from the parson- 
age door, after coming to be married, exclaiming hot- 
ly as she sprang into her chaise and drove away, that 
" she would never marry that man." There has also 
come down the decided remark of an independent 
young woman of the period, commenting on a fair 
prisoner who had yielded her own wishes after such 

133 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

a course of persuasion. "P was a goose. They 

could have locked me up till doomsday before I would 
have married John Smith, or John anything else, when 
I v/anted Jeremiah." 

It was a time of gift giving and receiving. The 
country and city exchanged their mutual luxuries, and 
tropical fruits from Jamaica, Canton-ware from China, 
and Staffordshire from England traveled over the seas, 
as did also beautiful mahogany furniture and tapes- 
tries from France, and many other articles of value 
from distant ports. The town of Hudson, four miles 
distant, being the head of navigation at this time, 
brought a wealth of foreign luxuries and conveniences 
into the lives of the people. 

It was customary to order sets of fine porcelain 
from China, decorated with a center piece of ermine 
drapery, on the foreground of which was a shield bear- 
ing the owner's initials or family crest. Governor 
Morris, whose son had been one of Dominie Gebhard's 
pupils at the parsonage, ordered on one of these voy- 
ages a set of fine china of three hundred pieces, with a 
border in deep blue, starred with gold, and decorated 
with the ermine and the initials J. G. G. in a shield 

134 



PARSONAGE WEDDINGS. 



upon each piece. These he presented to Dominie Geb- 
hard, in grateful recognition of his kindness to his 
son. A large proportion of this set of china is still in 
existence, and one can fancy it adorning the parsonage 
table on festival occasions, and the pride of the Domi- 
nie's wife as dainty tea-pot and helmet pitcher, egg 
shell tea-cups, and blue and gold-edged plates decorat- 
ed her board, with a background of snow-white linen, 
for whose spinning and weaving and bleaching she 
was famous. 

There were apple-paring bees and quiltings, sleigh- 
ride parties and weddings in the country, but even the 
minister's family sometimes looks with envious eyes 
upon the gayeties of the world's people. There is a 
story of Charlotte's going to spend a night with some 
friends in Hudson, where she found an opportunity to 
attend one of the Assemblies. These were scenes of 
much life and gayety, also the opportunity for the dis- 
play of most fascinating costumes in the fashions of 
the day. The young Patroon found the Dominie's 
daughter additionally charming in this new light, not 
suspecting that part of the sparkle in her hazel eyes, 
came from the excitement of the stolen pleasure. 

135 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

When he called the next day at the parsonage, pre- 
pared to rehearse the joys of the previous evening, the 
secret came out, and Charlotte attended no more As- 
semblies, in Hudson at least, though Philadelphia 
seems to have afforded an outlet in many ways for the 
parsonage young people. 

The young Patroon appears on the scene again, 
with a request to the Dominie that his fleet-footed son 
Lewis might be allowed to compete with some young 
Yankees in a New England town in the vicinity, 
where races were to be run on General Training Day. 
Lewis had already made this request and been refused, 
as the Dominie did not consider it a sport befitting the 
minister's son, but the young Patroon pleaded well, 
pointing out that it would not do to let their Yankee 
neighbors feel that they could outstrip the students of 
Washington Seminary, when they knew that they had 
the swiftest man in a race the country round. The 
Dominie yielded through the pressure brought to bear 
on him, and Lewis and the young Patroon went to the 
race, accompanied no doubt by such students as stood 
for the athletics of the day. They returned footsore 
and weary, but jubilant, for the medium-sized, slight- 

136 



PARSONAGE WEDDINGS. 



ly-built, swift-footed German youth, had far out- 
stripped the long-limbed, boastful Yankee, and they 
felt that Washington Seminary had won her laurels. 
It was thought at the time that the Dominie evinced 
all the pride in his son and the Seminary, compatible 
with his position. 

The fleetness of foot of the youthful Lewis remained 
to his life's end. When he died in 1875, aged eighty- 
three, he was the oldest practicing physician in Phil- 
adelphia, and a man whose light tread and skillful fin- 
gers were renowned in the sick-rooms of the Quaker 
city. It was his deft fingers in 1808, which made a 
pen-picture of the church, parsonage, and Washington 
Seminary, as they then stood, which is the source of 
our knowledge of them to-day. The boyish training 
of eye, and foot, and finger served him well in after 
life. 



137 



CHAPTER XVI. 

DIVIDING THE MANORS, AND THE CLAV- 
ERACK COURT HOUSE. 

Three years after the close of the war the County 
of Columbia was formed. It cut off a part of Albany- 
County and took Livingston Manor from Dutchess 
County. Thus nearly three-quarters of the new coun- 
ty was covered by the original Lower Van Renssel- 
aer Manor, Livingston Manor, and Clermont. 

A little more than a year previous, in 1784, Claver- 
ack had been divided between the heirs of the Pa- 
troon, Johannes Van Rensselaer, the heirs being his 
grandson, John I., only child of the Patroon's eldest 
son. Colonel John Jeremias Van Rensselaer and Ju- 
dith Bayard, and his remaining children. General 
Robert Rutsen Van Rensselaer, Colonel Henry I. Van 
Rensselaer, and James, together with Catherine, wife 
of General Philip Schuyler. Several of the heirs al- 
ready lived upon the land of the Lower Manor at 

138 



DIVIDING THE MANORS. 



Claverack, in homes of their own. John I. who suc- 
ceeded to the house at Crailo and the manorial rights, 
sold the latter out of the family, and eventually they 
were owned by Mr. John Watts, a long-time resident 
of Claverack, and grandfather of J. Watts De Peyster. 

After the Revolution, though not until 1792, Living- 
ston Manor was also divided between the children and 
grandchildren of Robert, its last Lord. In this divi- 
sion Robert Thong, the eldest son of Peter R. and 
Margaret Livingston, came into possession of the old 
Manor House and the surrounding land as a special 
bequest. Robert Thong built the house which is occu- 
pied by his great grandson Alexander L. Crofts to-day, 
the eighth in descent from Robert, the first Lord of the 
Livingston Manor. The remaining sons, W^alter, Rob- 
ert C, John and Henry, each received twenty-eight 
thousand acres, lying along the post-road from New 
York to Albany. In 1716 the first Lord of Livingston 
Manor had taken a seat in the General Assembly, and the 
succeeding Lords represented the Manor in the same 
way. Since 1772 Livingston Manor and Claverack had 
each sent one delegate to the Provincial Legislature. 

In a very short time after the formation of Columbia 

139 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS 

County, a Court House was in process of erection at 
Claverack, which remained the county-seat until 1805 
when it was removed to Hudson. There Elisha Wil- 
liams, James Spencer, Francis Sylvester, the Vander- 
poels, and other talented members of the bar engaged 
in far-famed legal conflicts. In 1789 Henry McKin- 
sey and Timothy Jackson charged with horse-stealing 
were tried here. They were found guilty and sen- 
tenced to be hanged, — "severally hanged until respec- 
tively dead," was the language of Judge Robert Yates, 
and in eighteen days they were executed in a field 
near by. 

In 1804 Dr. Croswell was tried here before Chief 
Justice Lewis of the Supreme Court, for a libel upon 
President Jefferson, published in his paper the "Hud- 
son Balance." It was an occasion of great public ex- 
citement, both from the importance of the question, 
and the well known legal ability of the counsel on 
both sides. The people were represented by Ambrose 
Spencer, Attorney-General> and the defendant by Wil- 
liam W. Van Ness and Alexander Hamilton. The 
New York Evening Post describing the trial, spoke 
both of the plea of Attorney-General Spencer, and the 

140 



DIVIDING THE MANORS. 



defense of William W. Van Ness, and then added, 
"After all came the great and powerful Hamilton. No 
language can convey an adequate idea of the aston- 
ishing powers evinced by him. The audience was nu- 
merous, and although composed of those not used to 
the melting mood, the effect produced on them was 
electric. * * * As a correct argument for a lawyer it 
was very imposing; as a profound commentary upon 
the science and practice of government it has never 
been surpassed." 

Dr. Croswell was found guilty notwithstanding the 
brilliant defense, the case involving some fine points 
of law, as to whether the truth might be given in evi- 
dence, which questions were taken before the Supreme 
Court finally, and a new trial was awarded. 

Again in the last trial conducted in the Claverack 
Court House, Alexander Hamilton appeared for the 
Patroon in the case between him and his Nobletown 
tenants, calling forth afresh the admiration of those 
in attendance. Among the most brilliant men of his 
time, and in the estimation of the American people 
second only to Washington, he had a double inter- 
est for the people of Claverack, for he had married 

141 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

Elizabeth Schuyler, the old Patroon, Colonel Johan- 
nes Van Rensselaer's granddaughter, and the daugh- 
ter of Catherine Van Rensselaer Schuyler. 

At the parsonage there were stories to tell also, how 
during Dominie Gebhard's pastorate in New York, 
young Hamilton had been a student at King's Col- 
lege, and had in the summer of 1774 made a speech on 
the Common. He was not much more than a boy, be- 
ing at the time a youth of seventeen, and at first he 
had faltered, seeing the sea of faces before him, but 
soon his courage returned with the thought of the 
wrongs and oppressions of the last few years, and his 
youthful enthusiasm and eloquence had awakened ex- 
clamations of wonder and approval from his audience. 
Already he was silver-tongued, and it was not long be- 
fore he had the opportunity to use his talent again. 

The following summer a young company of Militia, 
called "the Heart of Oaks," whose members wore 
green uniforms, and leather caps with the legend 
"Freedom or Death" inscribed upon them, had been 
occupied in moving cannon from the Battery in New 
York. A British ship approached. One of their num- 
ber thoughtlessly fired at the vessel, and they received 

142 



DIVIDING THE MANORS. 



in return a broadside which killed a young militiaman. 
The Liberty Boys were greatly excited, and part of 
them moved toward King's College, intending to cap- 
ture the President, Doctor Cooper, a well known Tory. 
Hamilton, discovering their destination, rushed ahead, 
and standing at the entrance of the College, began an 
earnest speech, intending that the President should 
have time to escape. But in his excitement and fright, 
the President misunderstood, and leaning out of an 
upper window cried out, "Don't listen to him, gentle- 
men, he is crazy, he is crazy." 

The laugh that swept through the crowd may have 
been as beneficial to the President's cause as Hamil- 
ton's continued oratory. At all events the escape was 
effected, and a company of youthful patriots were pre- 
vented from doing some rash act in the heat of their 
anger. John Jacobie of Claverack had been one of 
these Sons of Liberty also, and had assisted in destroy- 
ing the leaden statue of King George in 1776, which 
statue was later made into bullets for the American 
army. 

In the early part of the nineteenth century, Alexan- 
der Hamilton's fame was wide-spread, the achieve- 

143 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

ments of his brilliant intellect and honorable polit- 
ical career were acknowledged by all, even by those 
politically antagonistic to him. Though Alexan- 
der Hamilton and Aaron Burr did not meet in Claver- 
ack, they both visited this celebrated village. Judge 
William P. Van Ness was Burr's intimate friend, and 
Stephen Hogeboom, son of Jeremiah Hogeboom of 
Revolutionary fame, was a member of the Constitu- 
tional Convention in 1801, at which time Aaron Burr 
was President of the Convention. It was probably 
about this time that Colonel Burr, traveling by the 
post-road, stopped in his journey to Albany at a road- 
house later belonging to Robert Esselstyn. He was 
warmly welcomed, and hospitably entertained, but 
the language which formed the medium of communi- 
cation between them was inadequate, for Dutch was 
the common speech in use in this section of the coun- 
try, and Burr spoke English. Colonel Burr called for 
a napkin. The request brought about a family confer- 
ence between the good hostess and her husband, 
which, two heads being better than one, ended in the 
triumphant production of a "kniptong" which proved 
to be a pair of pincers. 

144 



DIVIDING THE MANORS. 



The tragic ending of the duel between Hamilton 
and Burr has cast a shadow over Burr's memory, but 
in many of the acts of his life he was heroic and patri- 
otic, and used his great talents for what he deemed 
to be the good of his country. There are those still 
living who remember his personal charm, and speak 
regretfully of the final clouded years of his life. In 
1804 Columbia County gave Colonel Burr a majority 
in his contest for the office of Governor. 

Following the removal of the seat of justice to Hud- 
son, the Claverack Court House passed through var- 
ious uses, being utilized both as a school and a hall 
for social gatherings. One of the descendants of 
Washington Seminary's most noted teacher, Andrew 
Mayfield Carshore, has painted a picture in rhyme of 
this latter occupation. 

"The stately minuet's begun 

In fashion's best array. 

There's mischief in the twinkling glance 

At every step's delay ; 

In clasping hands with blushing swain, 

Full-robed in lace and velvet vain, 

The lass can scarce from smiles refrain. 

Throughout the measures of the dance, 

145 
11 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

All sorts of terpsichorean play, 
The hornpipe, reel, and jig are done; 
But not before the risen day, 
In ruddy blushes, looks askance. 
That two (in parting almost one) 
Should waste the hours in pleasure's prance 
To swaying wand of Stephen Gunn." 
After several years the building was transformed 
into an attractive and spacious residence, the home of 
Mr. Peter Hofifman. Under the summer house in the 
garden was once the dungeon where malefactors were 
confined; at the east of the Court House stood the jail 
and pillory, and up to a recent date the old whipping- 
post held its place in the cellar. The transformation 
was a pleasing one, covering the gruesome features 
of the past with a host of enjoyable associations and 
recollections, and only retaining the memory of the 
old Court House in its glory. Charming social events 
have taken place in this building, both in the olden 
times, and at a later date. It is at present owned and 
occupied by the Misses Crane, daughters of Mr. Hi- 
ram Crane, for many years a resident of the town. 



146 



CHAPTER XVII. 

HOMES OF THE LOWER VAN RENSSELAER 
MANOR AT CLAVERACK. 

The sons and grandsons of the Patroon of the Low- 
er Van Rensselaer Manor had intermarried with the 
colonial families of Rutsens, Douws, Van Cort- 
landts, Schuylers, Livingstons, De Peysters, Wen- 
dells, Bayards, and Watts, bringing much intercourse 
with the active men of afifairs of the outer world, into 
this rural community. 

Into some of the Manor Houses families of relatives 
and friends were received during the war, affording as 
they did, a safe retreat from the dangers that threat- 
ened places more directly in line with the advance of 
the contending armies. The old church books record 
the names of more than one infant, born while shel- 
tered at the Manor, and baptized by Dominie Gebhard, 
faring forth again to homes at varying distances when 
the was was over. General Burgoyne's advance toward 

147 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

Albany sent Leonard Gansevoort and Hester Cuyler, 
his wife, to Claverack, where their daughter Marga- 
retta was born in one of the Manor Houses, and bap- 
tized the day of her birth by Dominie Gebhard. 

It was against this same advance of Burgoyne that 
"Poor's Brigade" marched, enlivening the way by sing- 
ing psalms, and in their service in the campaign cov- 
ered themselves with glory 

On the death of Johannes Van Rensselaer, the Pa- 
troon, his many possessions were divided between his 
children and heirs, and some of the most interesting 
stories of those days grow out of old chests and bar- 
rels stored away in attics for thirty, forty, or fifty 
years. A large part of the valuable china and silver 
owned by the family of the Lower Manor was buried 
at Greenbush during the Revolution. It is possible 
that this early need of caution was partially responsi- 
ble for many relics being kept under lock and key in 
strong chests for years. We have one picture of a 
chest broken open by later descendants, to discover 
within a Lafayette platter picturing the landing at 
Castle Garden, with the Bay full of ships and small 
craft, and soldiers standing at attention on the wharf, 

148 



HOMES OF THE LOWER V. R. MANOR. 

the deep blue color and glaze still uninjured. Side by 
side with the Lafayette platter were rolls of home- 
woven blankets, and delicate china cups with a thread- 
like border and a spray of flowers at the side, dating 
back to Holland and a century earlier than the Laf- 
ayette platter. 

Another scene gives a family gathering at a clean- 
ing-house time, that opportunity for the family histor- 
ian, when the spectators sat about, as paper after paper 
was drawn from an old barrel, read and preserved, or 
thrown aside for a bon-fire as the subject interested or 
palled upon the listeners. From the same attic which 
discovered the Lafayette platter, and Holland cups, 
there traveled down stairs after many years, a half 
do/.en old Van Rensselaer chairs with the date be- 
neath the seats, giving them a place in Colonel Jo- 
hannes' home, probably inherited from his father Hen- 
drick Van Rensselaer, since they date back two cen- 
turies. The tall carved backs, and high carved legs, 
and small leather-covered seats, give an idea of the in- 
terior of the first Van Rensselaer home at Claverack. 
as do also the tapestries and the old mahogany desk 
at which the Patroon sat on many a rent day. 

149 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

Among the many heirlooms of value which have 
passed down the generations of the Van Rensselaer 
family of the Lower Manor, only one seems to be lack- 
ing. No portraits of Hendrick, or Colonel Johannes 
Van Rensselaer, the Patroons of the Claverack Manor 
have been discovered, or are at present known to have 
existed. At a later period in Henry I. Van Rensse- 
laer's time, a prejudice existed among the Van Rens- 
selaers with regard to family portraits, founded on a 
visit made to a manorial home, where an ancestral por- 
trait was being used as a fire-board before a fire- 
place. 

Though we have not the pictured faces of either of 
the Patroons who shaped the life of the Claverack of 
the past, we have a record of them both as promoters 
of the religious life of the community, as church 
builders and supporters. Their proprietorship also 
of the Lower Van Rensselaer Manor is a history full 
of honor, in which their care for the best interests of 
the town and the well-being of their tenants was a 
prominent feature. A beautiful bit of hair-work, — a 
mourning ring marked "John Van Rensselaer," — is 
still owned by one of his descendants, an old-time 

150 



HOMES OF THE LOWER V. R. MANOR. 

memorial of a man who served well, and was an hon- 
or to his day and generation. 

The numerous brass and silver candlesticks, and the 
many brass andirons, all suggest that light and heat 
were considered carefully and artistically, even though 
it was not after modern fashion. There were always 
footstools in these homes, dainty mahogany affairs 
with curved sides and bars at the ends, and often carv- 
ed, telling of consideration for the comfort of the old, 
and as age and childhood often meet, the pleasure of 
tiie toddler as well, who could not reach up to a chair. 

The pipe of the Patroon or his sons, corresponded in 
size with his broad acres, suggesting that the found- 
ers of early clay kilns might have had the Dutchman's 
taste in mind. Surely an evening's smoke in those 
days would remind one of a modern chimney in ac- 
tive use. The mufif and ample bonnet of the Patroon's 
wife were quite as pretentious. Since the skins of an- 
imals were plentiful, the fur used in a mufif was not 
skimped. It is said th^t these winter comforts were 
large enough at times to hold a baby inside. 

The old Dutch Van Rensselaer Bible owned by the 
descendants of the Alexander Hamilton Van Rensse- 

151 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 



laer branch of the family, and published in 1744, is a 
heavy and ponderous volume, strengthened and orna- 
mented by corners and clasps of openwork brass. In 
the front is an atlas of the world as it was known at 
that period. From time immemorial children have en- 
joyed the pictures in old Bibles, and this profusely il- 
lustrated copy must have made the lagging hours of 
Sunday afternoon pass quickly for many little Van 
Rensselaers, with its multitude of small square pic- 
tures of Bible scenes, portraying the elephant and 
goat, lambs and horses, oxen and giraffe standing 
about in friendly fashion with Adam and Eve, or 
Adam and Eve dressed in skins of animals, driven out 
of Eden by an angel with a fluted sword, while the 
snake, with head raised, looked saucily on. 

The family Bible and the fire-place tiles in the Clav- 
erack houses, afforded the children much entertain- 
ment, and impressed Bible history on their youthful 
minds. 

Beside the old carved chairs and the Bible, we have 
a picture of Colonel Henry I. Van Rensselaer's home 
at the old Manor House during the war and the early 
years after it, through the wonderfully preserved rel- 

152 



HOMES OF THE LOWER V. R. MANOR. 

ics of the family of Henry I. Van Rensselaer 2d. 

On the old Manor walls among other pictures, hung 
exquisite paintings on glass, wrought in brilliant 
colors. Four actresses, three of whom were Mrs. 
Brooks, Lady Johnson, and Kitty Fisher looked down 
upon the gazer, with arch glances of coquetry, even 
the transparent shawls of some filmy material about 
their shoulders, showing the delicate tracery of scat- 
tered flowers. 

In cupboards and closets was a wealth of china, the 
pearly blue tint, with deep blue and gold-starred bor- 
der, twisted handles, and acorn-top pointing to their 
oriental origin, tall beer mugs decorated in the same 
fashion as my Lady's tea cups and Httle tea caddy, with 
two birds on a twig, surmounting a shield enclosing a 
spray of flowers. 

There were great center and side platters, plates, punch 
bowls, and other dishes ornamented in the thorn and 
rose pattern, rose-wreathed English china, and blue 
Cantonware in large numbers. Old Imari dishes, 
Delft, and Wedgwood also found a place in this large 
collection. Surely the Ladies of the Lower Manor 
lacked no china with which to set forth their hospita- 

153 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

ble board, be their guests ever so numerous. 

The silver service of these Van Rensselaer Manor 
Houses was also of the finest. Besides the more pre- 
tentious sets bearing the Van Rensselaer and Schuy- 
ler coats-of-arms, and even a piece or two dating back 
to Catherine Van Brugh, the wife of Hendrick, the 
first proprietor of the Lower Manor, there were dainty 
little pitchers and salt shakers with slender handles, 
and one tea-pot has a history familiar in the trials of 
housekeeping. After Colonel Johannes Van Rensse- 
laer's death, his granddaughter Anna, who had taken 
her mother's place in her father. Colonel Henry I. Van 
Rensselaer's home, visited Crailo to look after affairs 
at the Manor House, and found the slaves down in the 
kitchen having a tea drinking, with a silver tea-pot on 
the coals. Left to themselves they were enjoying a so- 
cial time, giving no thought to their master's posses- 
sions, since no master was near. The tea-pot was res 
cued and is still in existence. The teak-wood knife 
boxes and the gracefully shaped spoon urns also tell 
stories of the wealth of knives and spoons necessary 
for the large numbers who surrounded the Manor ta- 
bles. 

154 



HOMES OF THE LOWER V. R. MANOR. 

Back to the home of Colonel Henry I. Van Rensse- 
laer came the widowed children and the orphan grand- 
children, as to the other Manor Houses. There were 
few homes, Manor or farm houses in those days, 
which did not shelter three generations, and often 
aunts, nieces, and cousins as well. 

The beautiful china and silver did not always re- 
main in china closets, and cupboards over the man- 
tels each side of the chimney, or even on the old ma- 
hogany sideboard, but graced the Manor table, with 
its large family and many guests, and there were 
special occasions when the candles lighted up not only 
silver and glass and china, but also the heirloom ta- 
ble linen beneath them. 

Carefully treasured in one of the Claverack homes 
was the large Adam and Eve table cloth, which had 
come down from Myndert Schuyler, who was born in 
1672. It was before the days of exquisitely woven 
damask, and the artist had exerted his skill in produc- 
ing a remarkable design. Two soldierly looking per- 
sons representing Adam and Eve, stood on either side 
of a tree laden with apples, and one's imagination was 
required to do the rest in adjusting the scene to the 

155 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

personalities of our first progenitors in the Garden of 
Eden. 

It was to a home such as this that Catherine Schuy- 
ler and her husband came when she visited her broth- 
ers at Qaverack, or when the brothers and sister vis- 
ited together at their father's house at Greenbush, 
where open house was kept, and princely entertain- 
ments were given. Washington and Lafayette and 
many other noted men of the day were guests of honor 
in this hospitable home. We can see the fair women 
of the family in their brocades and laces moving about 
these candle-lighted rooms, and the men in their flow- 
ered waistcoats and short clothes, buckles at knees, 
and shoes, and many times in officer's uniform, for out 
of the eighteen males in the Van Rensselaer family of 
the Upper and Lower Manors, fourteen served in the 
army during the war, most of them holding commis- 
sions, the children and old men only being excepted. 

Their talk was of war and statecraft, of tenant troub- 
les, and the rising men of the day, of the prospects 
for their children, and their hopes for the nation, of 
the cultivation of rare varieties of fruits and of crops, 
while the ladies left to themselves found a hundred 

156 



HOMES OF THE LOWER V. R. MANOR. 

topics of home, and family interest, the education and 
marriages of their children, and the fashions of the 
day, — over which to carry on an eager conversation. 
The Schuyler boys and girls often came down to Clav- 
erack, and the mothers rehearsed the doings of their 
respective children, Catherine Schuyler telling after 
the war was over, of the entertainment of General Bur- 
goyne and his suite, who were so numerous that she 
had been obliged to order beds made upon the floor of 
the General's room, and how one of her younger boys, 
running about, opened the door in the morning, and 
called in, "You are all my prisoners," to the chagrin 
of hi? mother. 

No" was all the visiting one way. To be sure Cath- 
erine Schuyler's daughters did not afTord the Van 
Rensselaer family many weddings to attend, sinc^ 
four '->f them took their marriages into their own 
hands, but there were other festal occasions, and when 
Alexander Hamilton and Betsey Schuyler were mar- 
ried, there was a great wedding in the Schuyler man- 
sion at Albany, and the Claverack relatives were a 
part of the joyous occasion. 

Not since her mother's marriage at Crailo had there 

157 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

been so grand and joyous a family gathering, for the 
families of the Patroons gathered mightily on less fes- 
tal occasions. When the Lord of the Manor died, his 
relatives from far and near, and most of his tenants at- 
tended the funeral, and not only a religious service 
was <-he order of the day, but also the attempt to enter- 
tain the great concourse of people. Every slave on 
the estate, and every helper of any sort, was called out 
to meet the needs of the great number of guests gath- 
ered to do honor to the Lord of the Manor. In a way 
the ^atroon was a sovereign over his wide domain, 
and always had a representative in the Assembly, and 
in this Republican country was more remarkable than 
in the older civiHzations. Small wonder that, as Mrs. 
Lamb says, "Whenever it was announced in New 
York that the Patroon was coming to the city by 
lard, the day he was expected crowds would turn out 
to see him drive through Broadway with his coach 
and four with postillions behind, as if he were a prince 
of *he blood." 



158 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE SCHUYLER ROMANCES. 

Catharine Schuyler had been the only girl and 
youngest child in Colonel Johannes Van Rensselaer's 
family, and as such was greatly beloved by her broth- 
ers, who viewed her life with pride and affection. 
Crailo, at Greenbush, was the half way house, where 
the Albany and Claverack families assembled, the 
Van Rensselaer and Schuyler grandchildren often 
meeting under their grandfather's roof. A young Brit- 
ish officer seated on the curbing of the old well at 
Crailo wrote the words of Yankee Doodle. In the 
same place many a Van Rensselaer boy and girl sang 
them. Ar- Colonel Johannes had a summer home at 
Claverack, Catherine Van Rensselaer in her girlhood, 
was accustomed to the close proximity to Albany of 
her Greenbush home, and also the familiarity of the 
Claverack home, in a community of Manor Houses oc- 
cupied by her older h'-others and their families. 

159 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 



Lossing describes her as " delicate but perfect 
in form and feature ; of medium height, extremely 
graceful in her movements, and winning in her deport- 
ment ; well educated in comparison with others, of 
sprightly temperament and possessed of great firm- 
ness of will." The early years of her married life had 
been most eventful. With her soldier husband contin- 
ually going and coming, and in constant danger 
abroad, her little family of children increasing almost 
yearly at home, she found her hands filled with the 
cares of a large household, and many public calls as 
well. She had inherited many of her father's fine 
characteristics, and also his executive ability. Mrs. 
Ellet says of her, "At the head of a large family, her 
management was so perfect, that the regularity with 
which all went on, appeared spontaneous. Her life 
was devoted to the care of her children ; yet her friend- 
ships were warm and constant, and she found time for 
dispensing charities to the poor. Many families in 
poverty remembered with gratitude the aid received 
from her, sometimes in the shape of a milch cow or 
other article of usefulness. She possessed great self 
control, and as the mistress of a household, her pru- 

160 



THE SCHUYLER ROMANCES. 



dence was blended with unvarying kindness. Her 
chief pleasure was in diffusing happiness in her home." 

The family Bible in this household never failed to 
record each added child, with its benedictory prayer in 
the father's handwriting. "Elizabeth, Born Aug. 9th, 
1757, Lord do according to thy will with her." 

"John Bradstreet Born July 20th, 1763, Do with him 
according to thy will O Lord. Be with him living or 
dying." 

"Philip Jeremiah Born Jan. 20th, 1768. May the 
Lord grant that he grow up for the glory of God and 
his happiness." 

After the defeat of Ticonderoga, Catherine Schuyler 
had turned her barn into a hospital, tearing up table- 
linen and sheets into bandages, while she and her 
nieces Catherine and Gertrude Schuyler, and the 
daughters of Mayor Cuyler, united in nursing the 
wounded soldiers, her slaves being utilized meanwhile 
in cooking for the barn full of men, in the improvised 
hospital. 

During the year her husband had spent in Europe, 
Mrs. Schuyler had finished building the Schuyler man- 
sion at Albany, possibly with General Bradstreet's ad- 

161 

12 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

vice and assistance, though the women of that day 
showed quite remarkable architectural talent in the 
construction of their own homes. It was a large 
square house built of yellow brick, with thick walls 
suitable for defense, and with spacious halls sixty feet 
long, divided in the center by fan and side lights with 
their delicate tracery. There was the long drawing 
room with its handsomely carved colonial mantels, 
and its deep window seats, where many a youthful 
confidence was given and received, and where General 
Schuyler and his wife received guests of great political 
and social prominence. 

Sometimes the Schuyler coach brought the boys of 
the family to Claverack, which event was hailed with 
joy by their cousins of whom there were boys in plen- 
ty, John R., Jacob Rutsen, Jeremiah, Henry and James 
in General Robert R. Van Rensselaer's family, and 
John H., Volkert, Jeremiah H. and Robert Henry, in 
Colonel Henry I. Van Rensselaer's household. There 
were a hundred pleasures of field and stream which 
kept the boys occupied and happy in each other's com- 
pany. The Schuyler, as well as the Van Rensselaer 
boys, were wide awake children, full of pranks, and 

162 



THE SCHUYLER ROMANCES. 



with their minds stored with the incidents and excite- 
ments of soldier Hfe with which they had come in 
close contact in both Saratoga and Albany. Rensse- 
laer Schuyler's visits to Claverack were reckoned 
doubly pleasant through the absence of a hated pen- 
alty which he was accustomed to pay for his mischief, 
which consisted in writing pages of William Smith's 
History of New York. 

When Betsey and Peggy Schuyler's bright faces, in 
their flaring, fllower-lined bonnets, looked out of the 
coach windows as it drove up to the Manor Houses of 
their uncles, a flutter of excitement ran through the 
girls of either household, for there were girls as well 
as boys at the Lower Manor. At General Robert Van 
Rensselaer's there were Alida, Catherine and Angeli- 
ca. In Colonel Henry L Van Rensselaer's home were 
Angelica, Anna, and Magdalene. 

There were comparisons of gowns and needle-work, 
and fashions, walks in the garden between flower 
beds, and under the old trees, and candle-light talks at 
night while they brushed their hair before the ma- 
hogany dressing-tables with their glass-handled 
drawers, and mirrors which reflected fair girlish faces 

X63 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

and bright eyes shining with the interest of the story 
they were telling. The histories continued in hushed 
whispers after the candles were snufifed out, and the 
pale rays of a new moon crept in at the windows, and 
the high-post, chintz-covered bedsteads cast dark 
shadows in the great bed rooms. 

What more exciting tale of romance than each 
Schuyler girl brought in turn, as one after another of 
her four sisters conceived of some new form of enter- 
ing into the marriage relation ! In the case of Peggy's 
elopement, there was the double interest, since both 
Peggy and Stephen Van Rensselaer, the young Pa- 
troon of the Upper Manor, were cousins of the Clav- 
erack young people. Peggy's husband must have 
quieted greatly in his later years, for it is said of him 
that "the elder Stephen was very rich, very benevo- 
lent, and very hospitable, but no matter how dis- 
tinguished a guest was beneath his roof, when nine 
o'clock came he took his flat silver candle-stick and 
went to bed." 

But no tale of them all, produced such delicious 
thrills of excitement as the story of Cornelia, who had 
attended the wedding of Elizabeth Morton in New 

164 



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COLONEL HENRY I. VAN RENSSELAER MANOR HOUSE 
Built soon after the Revolutionary War. 




THE "WIDOW MARY" LIVINGSTON MANOR HOUSE 



THE SCHUYLER ROMANCES. 



Jersey, who had married Josiah Quincy of Boston. Af- 
ter the wedding the bride and groom had departed in 
a coach and four, accompanied part of the way by 
their bridesmaids and groomsmen. As in many other 
cases one wedding had bred another, and here Cor- 
nelia Schuyler had met the bride's brother, Washing- 
ton Morton, noted as a young athlete, he having 
walked to Philadelphia on a wager, accompanied by 
admirers and sustainers on horseback and in carriages. 
Naturally he had been the popular man of the occa- 
sion, and he and Cornelia had been immediately at- 
tracted to one another. 

But, alas! Cornelia's father was not pleased with 
the form of the young man's notoriety, and upon be- 
ing approached upon the tender subject, refused his 
consent, the General even going so far as to see young 
Morton started on a sloop toward home. 

But love's young dream was not to be so easily 
blighted, and Cornelia confided to her cousins that she 
and her father had had a stormy scene, but she had 
not given up her lover. 

There had been some fears and tears in the waiting 
time, but at last a letter had reached her, and it was 

165 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS 

not long after, that waiting at her window one night, 
her heart beating like a trip-hammer, she had heard a 
low whistle, and saw in the shadows below two muf- 
fled figures. Opening the window softly, a coil of rope 
was thrown up, which she rapidly drew in and found 
at the end a rope ladder. It required only a few min- 
utes to fasten it securely, then the girl, too excited to 
remember to be afraid, stepped swiftly down from the 
high second-story window to the ground. 

No longer separated, the lovers drove to the river 
and crossed, a coach and pair meeting them on the op- 
posite side. Across country they hastened for thirty 
miles to Stockbridge, to the home of Judge Theodore 
Sedgwick, an old friend of the Morton family, and not 
unknown to the reciter or listeners, for he had been 
connected on the Massachusetts side with the trouble- 
some boundary questions, with which all Colonel Jo- 
hannes' children and grandchildren were only too fa- 
miliar. The Judge sent for a minister and the runa- 
way couple were married. It was thought by those 
giving breathless attention to the exciting story, to 
have been the crowning episode of all the Schuyler 
romances, and it was many a night before the beat of 

166 



THE SCHUYLER ROMANCES. 



horses' hoofs on the road, failed to bring to mind the 
escapade of their cousin Cornelia, and a wonderment 
whether a similar runaway match was taking place 
along the moonlit post-road in Claverack. 

As for the uncles and aunts, the interest of the re- 
cital did not prevent cautions to their own young peo- 
ple, not to follow the example of their headstrong 
cousin, and some prophecies of the probable unfortu- 
nate results of such a course. But all signs failed in 
this, as in the other cases where the Schuyler girls' 
elopements were concerned, the marriage proving to 
be a happy one, and the young man becoming in time 
a rising young lawyer of New York. 

Ann Eliza Bleecker was a poetess of that day much 
read by the young ladies of the Manors. In a collec- 
tion of poems and letters published after her death, is 
one humorous epistle, written to her sister,chiding her 
for her long delay in answering her letters, which 
gives between the lines, some idea of the life of a 
young lady of fashion of the day. 

"To Miss S T E 

"No, I can admit of no excuse. I have written 
three letters in folio to my Susan, and have received 
no answer. After various conjectures about the cause 

167 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 



of so mortifying an omission, I have come to this con- 
ckision, that you have commenced a very, very, fash- 
ionable lady — (you see my penetration) — and though 
I am not in possession of Joseph's divining cup, I can 
minutely describe how you passed the day when my 
last letter was handed you ; we will suppose it your 
own journal. 

"Saturday Morn. Feb. 12. 

" Ten o'clock. Was disturbed in a very pleasant 
dream by Aunt V. W., who told me breakfast was 
ready, fell asleep and dreamed again about Mr. S. 

"Eleven. Rose from bed: Dinah handed my shoes, 
washed the cream poultice from my arms, and un- 
buckled my curls ; drank two dishes of hyson ; could 
not eat anything. 

"From twelve to two. Withdrew to my closet; pe- 
rused the title page of Pilgrim's Progress ; R came 

in, and with an engaging address, presented me with 
a final billet-doux from Mr. S. and a monstrous big 
packet from sister B. Laid the packet aside ; mused 
over the charming note until three o'clock. Could not 
read sister's letter, because I must dress, Major Arro- 
gance, Colonel Bombast, and Tom Fustian being to 
dine with us ; could not suit my colors ; fretted — got 
the vapours; Dine, handing me the salts, let the vial 
fall and broke it; it was diamond cut crystal, a present 
from Mr. S. I flew up in a passion — it was enough to 
vex a saint — and boxed her ears soundly. 

'• Four. Dressed ; Aunt asked me what sister had 
wrote. I told her she was well, and had wrote noth- 
ing in particular. Mem. — I slyly broke the seal to 
give a colour to my assertions. 

168 



THE SCHUYLER ROMANCES. 



" Between four and five. Dined. Tom Fustian 
toasted the brighest eyes in the company — 1 reddened 

like crimson — was surprised to see M blush, and 

looking- around saw P blush yet deeper than we. 

I wonder who he meant. Tom is called a lad of judg- 
ment. Mr. S. passed the window on horseback. 

"Six. Visited at Miss 's ; a very formal company ; 

uneasy in my stays — scalded my fingers, and stained 
my changeable by spilling a dish of tea ; the ladies 
were exceedingly sorry for the accident, and Miss V. 
Z. observed that just such another mischance had be- 
fallen the widow R. three years before the war. 

*' From six till three in the morning. Danced with 
Mr. S. — thought he looked jealous — to punish him I 
coquetted with three or four pretty fellows, whispered 
Colonel Tinsel, who smiled and kissed my hand ; in 
return I gave him a petulant blow on the shoulder. 
Mr. S. looked like a thunder gulf; then affected to be 
calm as a stoic ; but in spite of philosophy turned as 

pale as Banquo's ghost. M seemed concerned, 

and asked what ailed him? 1 don't like M ;I won- 
der what charm makes everybody admire her ; sure, if 
Mr. S. was civil to her it was enough, he need not be 
so very affectionate. I flew in a pet to a vacant parlour, 
and took out sister's letter to read ; I labored through 
ten lines, contemplated the seal, chewed off three cor- 
ners, and folding the remains elegantly, put it in my 
pocket. I suppose it was full of friendship and such 
like country stuff. However, sister writes out of a 
good heart to me, and I will answer it. Mr. S. and I 

were reconciled through the intercession of P , 

whose lovely humanity everywhere commands es- 

169 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 



teem. We passed the hours very agreeably. On my 
retiring, Dinah attended, and having no paper handy, 
I gave her sister's letter to put my hair in buckle, 
w^hile I read some verses. 

" Well, Susan, you see that in the Arctic wilds of 
America your secret actions are brought to light, so I 
hope you w^ill pay more respect to this epistle. 

" Mr. B begs me, at this very instant, to present 

his very humble regards to you, and has made three 
solemn bows to your ladyship before I could write a 
sentence. Polly S is here, and making sad execu- 
tion among our beaus. We live here, a merry kind of 
a laughing, indolent life ; we suffer no real evils, and 
are far from regretting the elegant amusements that 
attend a city life ; all that I want, my sister, is your 
company. This constant repetition you must permit 
(without repining) in all my letters. I never walk in 
that angle of my garden where your flowers are 
planted, but I heave a sigh, as if it were a painted 
monument to your departed body. Can you never 
come to us ? Tell my sweet cousins I love them all 

tenderly ; recollect me with affection to Aunt V 

W , and permit my Peg and Hannah to salute 

vou. 

"ANN ELIZA BLEECKER." 
"Tomhanick, March 29, 1785. 

"This day fourteen years ago, Susan, I was mar- 
ried ; repent and take a husband." 



170 



CHAPTER XIX. 
ANTI-RENT TROUBLES. 

Troubles over the payment of rents to the Lords of 
the Manors, and later to their descendants, had existed 
for a full century before the final settlement of the 
matter. The disputed boundary line between New York 
and Massachusetts which had caused a border warfare 
among the inhabitants of the contested districts, was 
probably occasioned as much by the discontent of the 
Manor tenants, as by the controversy between the 
provinces. 

The Government of New York claimed that its east- 
ern line was the Connecticut River, on the basis that 
the Dutch actually possessed this river before any oth- 
er European people knew of its existence, that they had 
a fort and garrison there, had traded with the Indians, 
and purchased of them nearly all the land for a hun- 
dred miles on both sides of the Connecticut. Massa- 
chusetts set up rival claims, setting the boundary lines 

171 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

of her possessions westward at least as far as the Hud- 
son River, although she confessed that she "had for a 
long time neglected the settlement of the West 
Bounds; they lying very remote from Boston." 

About the middle of the eighteenth century, tenants 
who had neglected to pay their rents until they had 
reached a considerable amount, became defiant, decid- 
ing in future to hold their lands as owners and no 
longer tenants, under authority to be secured from the 
government of Massachusetts Bay. This was the be- 
ginning of long hostilities between the provinces. Dur- 
ing the controversy houses were burned, wheat was 
cut down and carried away in v/agons, and acres of 
corn were destroyed. Acts of retaliation were com- 
mitted by both parties. Secret surveys were made by 
New England men, and possession of land surveyed 
in this way, was taken by the construction of tree- 
fences. 

Tenants refusing to leave farms after being ordered 
to go, found their crops harvested and carried away by 
their landlord and his assistants. Hundreds of trees 
were destroyed and crops ruined by the rioters, and 
arrests followed, both parties growing more and more 

172 



ANTI-RENT TROUBLES. 



bitter as the trouble continued. 

There were threats to take the Lords of both the 
Livingston and Van Rensselaer Manors dead or alive. 
Organizations of militar}- companies intended for pro- 
tection against the Indians, were used in this tenant- 
warfare, representing tenants or landlord, according to 
the composition of the company, the Captains of the 
Anti-rent party holding their commissions from the 
Governor of Massachusetts, while Robert Livingston, 
Jr., and Dirck Ten Broeck held theirs from the Govern- 
or of New York. The disaffection begun on t1ie Liv- 
ingston Manor, but spread to tliat of the Van Rensse- 
laers. 

Robert Noble, a tenant of Rensselaerwick, held one 
of these Massachusetts commissions, and transformed 
his house into a kind of fort, with loop-holes for mus- 
kets, and garrisoned by about twenty men under his 
command, claiming to hold their land under the Bos- 
ton government. Some of their neighbors were taken 
prisoners unlawfully by the company, and upon a visit 
from the Sherifif he too was made prisoner, and con- 
fined in the Sheffield jail. The rescuing party led by 
John and Henry Van Rensselaer found the Noble 

173 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

house deserted, and before their return a tenant named 
Riis, an Anti-rent sympathizer was killed upon the 
Livingston Manor. 

For this event each party accused the other, one 
pleading self-defense, and the other unprovoked as- 
sault. Further arrests followed, and the bitterness be- 
came intense, particularly against the Lord of Livings- 
ton Manor, who in the end ejected many tenants who 
refused to pay rent. Serious riots ensued, resulting in 
several killed and wounded. Under Governor De Lan- 
cy's authority, a number of the rioters were arrested 
and held in prison for about two years, with the effect 
of quelling the Anti-rent disaffection for a considerable 
time, and the proprietors and Manors settled down to 
a peace long destroyed by the Anti-rent disturbances. 

A partial settlement of the boundary line was made 
at this time, but it was not until the spring of 1773, 
that the partition line of the jurisdiction of the two 
States, was entirely established, which made the divid- 
ing line as nearly as possible, twenty miles from the 
Hudson River. The commission appointed to decide 
upon the matter was composed of John Watts, Wil- 
liam Smith, and Robert R. Livingston on the part of 

174 



ANTI-RENT TROUBLES. 



New York, and John Hancock, Joseph Hawley, and 
William Brattle for Massachusetts. The agreement of 
the commissioners received the approval of the Gov- 
ernors of both States. 

The settling of the Boundary line between the two 
States however, did not entirely do away with the ten- 
ant uprisings. Twice in the next thirty-five 3'ears the 
Anti-renters took the war path, repeating each time 
the lawless acts of arson, destruction of grain, and tak- 
ing of human life. 

The Revolutionary War for a time quieted the more 
turbulent spirits, though it was often suspected that 
the so-called Tories were at times those actuated by a 
desire for personal vengeance. 

The Anti-rent feeling arose again strongly in 1790, 
not only in ColumlMa but in adjacent counties. The 
farmer-tenants on the Manors held that they and their 
ancestors had already paid in rents, far more than the 
worth of the land, even including the buildings and 
improvements which they themselves had made, that 
the system of perpetual lease-holding was degrading 
and inconsistent with the principles of Republican gov- 
ernment, or with self respect. On the banks of the 

175 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 



Hudson river they were subjected to a system of land 
tenure which had been overthrown in England in the 
thirteenth century. 

These opinions circulated freely through the press, 
awakened the old feeling of resentment, and being 
fanned to a white heat, some of the people of Noble- 
town (Hillsdale) threatened the deputy sent to hold 
an auction, by reason of an execution against a man 
named Arnold, and the auction was postponed till the 
following Saturday. On that day Sheriff Cornelius 
Hogeboom attended the execution himself, and after 
waiting till late in the afternoon for the arrival of his 
deputy, the people in the meantime having become 
more and more excited, postponed the sale once more, 
and with his two companions started for home. Young 
Arnold, an Anti-rent leader, seeing the officers of the 
law about to depart, fired a pistol, at which a number 
of men dressed and painted like Indians, suddenly ap- 
peared and followed the Sheriff and his companions, 
firing as they advanced. Part of the bullets passed 
between the two men, but Sheriff Hogeboom refused 
to spur his horse, saying that he was " vested with the 
law, and they should never find him a coward." 

176 



ANTI-RENT TROUBLES. 



Soon after this the Indians dropped off, but young 
Arnold and a companion mounted one horse and 
caught up with the Sheriff, when one of them leveled 
his gun and lodged a bullet in the heart of Mr. Hoge- 
boom. With the exclamation " I am a dead man," the 
Sheriff fell from his horse, and was carried into a 
house near by. 

The feelings and sympathies of the whole commun- 
ity were deeply stirred by this atrocious murder. 
Though twelve men supposed to have been implicated 
in the proceedings were arrested, Jonathan Arnold 
was never captured. After a long trial held in Claver- 
ack in February 1792, those arrested were acquitted 
for lack of evidence. 

The widow of Cornelius Hogeboom died wholly of 
grief three months later. Everything possible was 
done to quell the lawless spirit after this tragic event, 
and for nearly half a century no further Anti-rent 
troubles of any magnitude arose. But the spirit of 
Anti-rentism was only smouldering, and broke out 
again in 1840. Secret societies were formed extending 
through several counties, pledging themselves to pro- 
tect tenants from arrest or eviction, and to guard their 

177 

13 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

property from sale. As soon as a Sheriff came in sight, 
a band of men in calico dresses with faces painted as 
Indians, armed with pistols, tomahawks and guns, ap- 
peared on horse back and warned him away, threaten- 
ing him if he proceeded to perform his duty. Again 
there was lawlessness and tragedy until the leaders 
" Big Thunder " and " Little Thunder " were arrested. 
Sheriff Henry C. Miller attempted to serve papers on 
the property of an Anti-renter, and was taken prisoner 
by " Big Thunder " and six other chiefs of his tribe, 
and his papers burned amidst the war-whoops of "Big 
Thunder's " followers and sympathizers. This event 
awakened the deepest indignation. 

It was known that "Big Thunder " was to speak to 
the Van Rensselaer tenants in Smoky Hollow in the 
town of Claverack on a particular day. He was sur- 
rounded by a body-guard in costume, and in this spec- 
tacular setting addressed a large audience of Anti- 
rent partisans, and others interested in the subject. It 
was his most brilliant as well as his last speech, for 
during the excitement of the day, a young man named 
Rifenburgh was shot and killed. It was said to have 
been an accident, but the authorities felt it was time 

178 



ANTI-RENT TROUBLES. 



to prevent more accidents of the same sort, and "Big 
Thunder" was arrested on the night of his greatest 
triumph. He made a desperate efifort to escape but 
failed, and was lodged that night in the Hudson jail. 
So great was the excitement over the threats of his fol- 
lowers, who, a thousand strong, had sworn to rescue 
the prisoners and burn the city of Hudson, that guards 
were stationed at the jail, and Hudson was patrolled at 
night for a month, while other arrangements were 
made for defense. At the end of this time the danger 
was believed to be past. Without a leader, and as the 
result of frequent arrests, the Anti-rent rioters had 
."gain quieted down. 

"Big Thunder" was tried and sentenced to life im- 
prisonment in Clinton prison. "Little Thunder" was 
never brought to trial. There were no more attempts 
to resist the execution of the law in Columbia County, 
but in 1846 the Anti-rent party elected their governor 
(Young) and one of his first official acts was to pardon 
the Anti-rent convicts, including "Big Thunder," The 
final triumph of the Anti-renters came in 1852, when 
in the test case of De Peyster against Michael (De 
Peyster having purchased of Van Rensselaer interest 

179 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

in land), the court was unanimous in its decision in 
favor of the defendant. This case closed the Anti- 
rent controversy in favor of the Anti-renters, after a 
century of repeated bloodshed and riot, and si .ce 
then "the entire soil of the Lower Van Rensselaer 
Manor has been held in fee simple by it occupants." 

"In the war against Great Britain in 1812-1815 Col- 
umbia county furnished a large number of troops, 
though few of them saw active service under hostile 
fire." A military organization under Brigadier-Gener- 
al Samuel Ten Broeck existed prior to the war, and 
was still under his command at this time. Among the 
commands mentioned as composing the brigade, was 
that of a "regiment of infantry commanded by Major 
Robert T. Livingston, having attached to it the troon 
of cavalry commanded by Captain Walter T. Livings- 
ton, and a regiment of infantry under command of 
Lieutenant- Colonel Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer at- 
tached to which was a troop of horse, commanded by 
Captain Killian Hogeboom." 

"The Light Infantry Battalion of Lieutenant-Colo- 
nel (afterwards promoted to Colonel and Brigadier- 
General) Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer, was ordered 

180 



ANTI-RENT TROUBLES. 



to the defense of the city of New York, September ist, 
1814, and remained on that duty during the whole 
term of service." 

William A. Spencer, a son of Judge Ambrose Spen- 
cer, for many years a prominent resident of Colum- 
bia County, was a participant in the naval battle 
fought on Lake Champlain under Commodore 
McDonough, and was wounded in the fight. The 
young man made a name for himself for gallantry as 
a midshipman in the Commodore's fleet. 



181 



CHAPTER XX. 
THE NEW CITY OF HUDSON. 

The Presidential Electors, by an act of the Legisla- 
ture, met at Hudson from the year 1796-1813, after 
which the Electoral College met at Albany. In many 
ways the growing city of Hudson was superseding 
Claverack, but although Hudson offered certain ad- 
vantages in affairs of importance, the notable house- 
wives of Claverack, and mine host of the stage- 
house still held their own in matters of hospitality 
and comfort for the inner man. The Presidential 
Electors cast their votes in Hudson, but they rode 
over the turnpike to Claverack in order to dine at Gor- 
don's tavern, noted at the time for a generous and sat- 
isfying hospitality. 

It is noticeable also that the Presidential Electors 
of the succeeding seventeen years included Claverack 
names, and in some cases residents, John Bay, Robert 
Van Rensselaer, Peter Van Ness, Stephen Miller, 

182 



THE NEW CITY OF HUDSON. 



John C. Hogeboom, together with Thomas and 
Robert Jenkins of Hudson, forming the Presidential 
Electors from this section until 1813. 

In 1785 by the act of incorporation Hudson became 
a city, the third in the State. The city bounds ex- 
tended from the line of the town of Livingston on 
the south, to Major Abraham's (Stockport) creek on 
the north, and Claverack creek on the east. By this 
act "Claverack Landing," no longer existed, but it 
was another quarter of a century before the old name 
ceased to swing from the sign on the steamboat 
docks. The same year Ezekiel Gilbert moved his law 
office from Claverack to Hudson, becoming Hudson's 
first lawyer, and as such, was of great service to the 
new city in its early days. He was Representative in 
Congress in 1795, and it was through his efforts that 
Hudson was made a port of entry. 

Many of the "Proprietors" who settled Hudson, 
brought ships with them from Providence and Nan- 
tucket, and in 1786 twenty-five of the vessels on the 
river were owned in the newly settled town. In 1813 
two hundred and six sloops were running to New 
York, many of them owned at Hudson. 

183 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

Ship-yards were soon opened, and as many as five 
large ships were often on the stocks in the five differ- 
ent yards at the same time. Launching days were holi- 
days, when schools were dismissed, and the people 
from adjoining towns came in to witness the launch- 
ing and christening of the "Lively Polly," "American 
Hero," "Ajax," or "Columbia." Booths were built 
and refreshments sold, principally card-gingerbread, 
the holiday dainty of that date. Crowds would wait 
patiently for hours for the eventful moment when the 
boat first trembled, then began to move slowly on the 
ways. As it touched the water, guns were fired, and 
cheers arose from the gathered citizens and guests. 

In 1802 on the first day of March, two thousand 
eight hundred sleighs entered the city. A continuous 
line of teams often stood the full length of Front 
Street, extending into Main Street, while they waited 
to unload at the different freighting houses, and fif- 
teen vessels bearing heavy freight were known to set 
sail upon the same day. The season of the year and 
condition of the country roads no doubt con- 
trolled the exports that left the Hudson wharves in 
such stupendous quantities. Beef, pork, shad, pickled 

184 



THE NEW CITY OF HUDSON. 



herring, lumber, leather, and country produce gener- 
ally, formed the outgoing cargo. Returning, there 
came a great variety of fruits from the West Indies, 
and rum, sugar, and molasses. Some ships sailed to 
Charleston, the Windward Islands, Brazil, and Medi- 
terranean ports. Once during these years a ship ar- 
rived from Holland consigned to William Wall, re- 
loaded with lumber and returned to the Dutch port. 
The Dutch people of Claverack and those at the 
"Landing" made the vessel frequent visits during its 
stay, delighted with a voyager from the fatherland, 
and a crew who could speak their own tongue. 

Whale and seal fishery were both carried on to a 
considerable extent, bringing from Falkland, and oth- 
er islands in the South Atlantic, large numbers of fur 
and hair seal skins, and quantities of sea elephant's 
oil, while the whale ships returned from the Pacific 
ocean with cargoes of sperm oil. When Tallyrand 
was traveling in America he stopped at Hudson, exam- 
ining with keen interest the oil works of Thomas Jen- 
kins, and the details of the manufacture of sperm can- 
dles. 

In the closing years of the eighteenth century pro* 

185 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

gress of all kinds was in the air, the building of 
towns, establishment of educational institutions, 
great commercial traffic between our own and other 
lands, whisperings of scientific feats to come, and 
like a leaf of the tree of progress, a yellow slip of pa- 
per dated 1799 floats down through the years, a re- 
ceipt for a contribution made by Rev. John G. Geb- 
hard "to promote the progress of the useful arts." 
This contribution was made in conformity to an act 
of Congress dated 1793, and suggests that advance 
along all lines was the order of the day. 

In 1792 Claverack and Hudson united in paying 
honor to John Jay who had been making a visit to 
Kinderhook. A company of two hundred Hudson 
men met him at Claverack, where they were received 
by Mr. William H. Ludlow, who hospitably enter- 
tained his guest of honor and the visiting citizens 
from Hudson, while at his home. Mr. Jay was es- 
corted to Hudson, where he was met by a salute from 
Frothingham's Artillery, and after a procession 
through the principal streets was taken to Kellogg's 
tavern upon the present site of "The Worth." This 
tavern was the stopping place for the stages, and 

186 



THE NEW CITY OF HUDSON. 



swung out a patriotic sign of George Washington in 
full uniform on horseback. Here a bountiful enter- 
tainment had been provided, the Mayor of that date, 
Seth Jenkins, presiding. Toasts were drunk to the 
"Prosperity of Hudson" and to the "Man of the Day" 
to which the Mayor and Mr. Jay responded respec- 
tively. A reception of citizens was held during the 
evening, and the following morning the distinguished 
guest set sail on the sloop Pompey, for the home of 
Governor Lewis, amid the enthusiastic demonstra- 
tions of the citizens of Hudson. 

The river was closed to navigation in December 
1799, and the sad tidings of the death of General 
Washington were sent by post-riders to Albany. By 
this means of communication the event was not an- 
nounced in that city till nine days after it occurred. 
Claverack and Hudson, owing to the shorter distance, 
heard of the sorrowful occurrence a day or two earlier. 

Grief was widespread in hamlet and village, and in 
the Manor Houses on the Hudson, as well as in the 
cities. In Albany, by order of the Common Council, 
the bells tolled from three to five hours, and aldermen 
wore crape on their arms for six weeks. But far 

187 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

deeper than any outward sign could indicate, was the 
sorrow of a people who felt their independence had 
been won through the leadership of the man who had 
just passed away, who had been their first President, 
and without whom it seemed for a time impossible to 
go on. 

The break was keenly felt and deeply deplored, and 
then younger shoulders were placed under the heavy 
load of building a new nation, and life went on, but 
the "Father of His Country" has been more honored 
and appreciated through every year of the succeeding 
century. 



188 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THE MARRIAGE OF ALEXANDER HAMIL- 
TON AND ELIZABETH SCHUYLER. 

The Schuyler girls, with their thoughts on matri- 
mony, owing to the epidemic of marriages in their 
family, found in Claverack much to interest them in 
the stories of the weddings of an earlier generation, 
the marriage outfits of their Aunt Rachel Douw, the 
wife of Colonel Henry I. Van Rensselaer, and their 
Aunt Cornelia Rutsen, General Robert's wife, and also 
that of Anna Schuyler, wife of Johannes De Pey- 
ster, and daughter of that Myndert Schuyler through 
whom descended the Adam and Eve table-cloth. 
There were towels, sheets, pillow cases, hempsheets, 
handkerchiefs, neckerchiefs, and table cloths in large 
numbers, beside spreads and quilts, in the outfits of 
these Manor brides, which practical household fur- 
nishings were expected to cover the necessities of 
large families and many guests. 

189 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

Beside these, was the wedding finery, delicate yel- 
low and blue satins and brocades, flowered silks and 
fine laces, and even their uncle Henry's wedding 
waistcoat drew a few moments attention from the 
merry-hearted girls, till exquisite pearl handled fans 
with groups of dancing maidens, drew their interest 
back to articles of feminine adornment once more. 

It was before Peggy Schuyler was married and be- 
fore the war was over, that Angelica Church came home 
with her first baby. She had taken a dangerous time for 
her visit to her old home, for an attempt was made by 
the Tories and Indians during her stay to capture her 
father. Other efforts of the kind had been made, and 
the house was guarded by six soldiers. Their guns 
were stacked in the hall. Childlike, the little Philip 
had hung about the dangerous playthings, and no peril 
seeming imminent, his mother had removed the 
guns to a safer place out of the baby's reach. At the 
alarm of the approaching enemy, the soldiers rushed 
for their weapons only to find them gone. The family 
fled precipitantly up stairs, when the baby was sud- 
denly remembered to have been asleep in one of the 
rooms below. Margaret Schuyler dashed back, 

190 



AN ALBANY WEDDING. 



grasped the sleeping child in her arms, and shielding 
it with her body, gained the stairs, when an Indian 
flung a tomahawk at her head. It missed its aim, but 
buried itself in the wood of the stairs, where the mark 
is still visible. 

The Van Rensselaer girls might listen with thrills 
of excited pleasure in the moonlight, to tales of the 
elopements of their Schuyler cousins, but Margaret's 
brave act in saving the life of her little nephew, won 
the generous admiration of her boy cousins. 

Full of interest as were these stories of hair- 
breadth escapes, and runaway matches, to all the Van 
Rensselaer young people, the gathering of the clans of 
the Upper and Lower Manors of Rensselaerwick, in 
the great Schuyler drawing room, when Alexander 
Hamilton married Elizabeth Schuyler in her own 
home, was an occasion of family pleasure without al- 
loy. 

The deep window-seats had seen much of the love- 
making of the young diplomat and this daughter of 
the Schuylers, and offered inviting shadows to the 
many young people present. It was a grand occasion, 
drawing together tliose prominent in the social and po- 

191 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

litical life of the new Republic, for a large portion of 
which guests, it was not necessary to go outside of the 
family relationship. The rich brocades and glistening 
satin gowns, and dainty high-heeled slippers to match, 
the coquettish young eyes peering over the tops of 
ivory handled fans, as they bowed and courtesied in 
the minuet or money-musk, in the spacious upper hall 
which was used as a dancing hall in the Schuyler man- 
sion, charmed the young scions of the different 
branches of the Van Rensselaer and Schuyler families, 
and their friends the young bloods of the day who 
were present. 

Never had Betsey Schuyler's dark eyes shone so 
gloriously, or her cheeks flushed more bewitchingly, 
than when she stood beside her brilliant young hus- 
band, receiving the good wishes of her friends, — merry 
wishes from the cousins and younger people, more 
earnest ones from the older relatives. It was possible 
for all the guests to gather in the broad halls below, 
divided by a glass partition with fan and side lights. 

The sweep of the staircase, with its fine spindled 
balustrade, seemed made for the descent of so dis- 
tinguished a groom, and so charming a bride. There 

192 



AN ALBANY WEDDING. 



was a glance of pride and protection !n Hamilton's 
fine face as he appeared on the half-way landing be- 
side Elizabeth Schuyler gowned in the quaint and 
charming fashion of the period, with a witching smile 
on her always sunny face. As they descended into the 
merry waiting gathering below, they made a beautiful 
picture in the old hall, not easily forgotten among the 
many scenes of note which transpired there. 

Catherine Schuyler's children were scattering, and 
grandchildren drew her heart in many directions, but 
still back to old Claverack among the rest. Philip 
Jeremiah, one of the younger among the Schuyler 
children, who had often visited and loved the home of 
his mother's girlhood, married Sally Rutsen a few 
years later, a relative of his aunt, Mrs. Robert R. Van 
Rensselaer, and when a son, Philip, named for both 
father and grandfather was born in April 1789, the 
young couple waited for the beautiful month of May, 
when the youthful Philip was baptized in the old Clav- 
erack church by Dominie Gebhard, the parents them- 
selves acting as god-father and god-mother on this oc- 
casion. 

Bringing back the children of the new generation 

193 
H 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

to the old Claverack homes had many pleasant fea- 
tures. There are no toys in childhood equal to the 
quaint playthings of by-gone days, and in the Van 
Rensselaer homes of Claverack were wooden cradles 
with hooded canopies at one end, and little goose 
feather beds and home-woven covers, and high-post 
doll's bedsteads with blue and white chintz curtains. 
The dolls that looked out between the curtains, 
were most attractive, if we may trust a family 
saying of the Dominie's daughter, Charlotte. "As 
beautiful as a Holland doll," was her highest form of 
praise of a child, telling one how beautiful the chil- 
dren's Dutch dolls must have seemed to their youthful 
eyes. Tiny leather trunks, brass-nailed and hairy, 
held the doll's wardrobe, while little rush-bottomed 
rocking chairs invited the small mothers to rest awhile 
and rock their doll-babies. 

For the boys, the old flint-lock guns, and spy- 
glasses, the pleasures of Claverack creek and a fish- 
ing rod, and the remnants of Revolutionary uniforms 
never lost their fascination, nor yet the Spitzenberg 
apples to be found on the top of the "kas" in many of 
the houses. The hollow tops of these old linen chests 

X94 



AN ALBANY WEDDING. 



afforded a safe hiding place for the spicy winter ap- 
ples during the mellowing time, until the lengthening 
of boyish legs revealed their presence to the eyes on 
a level with the edge of the "kas," when the climber 
felt as rich as though he had discovered a gold mine. 



195 



CHAPTER XXII. 

ROBERT FULTON AND THE FIRST 
STEAMBOAT. 

To a man as full of mechanical genius as Dominie 
Gebhard, and to sons growing up with the same tastes, 
the stories of a forth-coming boat on the Hudson run 
by steam, could not but produce eager expectation 
and intelligent interest. The fact that this new ven- 
ture was the combined efifort of Chancellor Livingston 
and Robert Fulton, made it doubly attractive to the 
section of country which Chancellor Livingston 
called home. The subject was under discussion at 
every stage-house and tavern, and the skippers of the 
sloops on the Hudson, looked forward with ill-con- 
cealed disdain to the attempt to run a boat irrespec- 
tive of wind or tide, and they, in common with those 
who looked on at its building, joined in calling the 
new steamboat "Fulton's Folly." 

Fulton, as he says himself, "accomplished his great 

196 



THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 



purpose without a single word of encouragement, or 
of bright hope, or a warm wish crossing his path." 
Yet had he but known it, there were men of vision 
holding a hope of success in their hearts for the 
young inventor and his project, and bearing in their 
turn the ridicule of the doubters. But the great dis- 
coveries of science have never waited for the demise 
of the incredulous before pouring their benefits upon 
mankind, and neither did the new steamboat "Cler- 
mont," named for Chancellor Livingston's place on 
the Hudson, await that long delayed day. 

On the 17th of August, 1807, the Clermont started 
on its first trip up the Hudson, carrying a party of in- 
vited guests. All along the river crowds gathered on 
the wharves and along the shores waving and cheer- 
ing, and the skippers and sailors on the sloops and 
river craft watched with astonishment the grotesque- 
looking vessel moving rapidly forward against wind 
and tide, without the usual means of locomotion. And 
indeed it was an awe-inspiring sight, especially at 
night. From the smoke-stack arose a volume of fire- 
streaked smoke, made still more luminous with flying 
sparks when the wood fires were stirred from below. 

197 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

The noise of paddles and machinery were deafening 
at a near range, and some of the foreign sailors on the 
sloops are said to have dropped to their knees with a 
prayer that they might be protected from so horrible 
a monster, which came swiftly on its way, belching 
fire and smoke. 

A farmer part way up river hastened home to in- 
form his family that "he had seen the devil going up 
river in a saw-mill." No doubt the ludicrous appear- 
ance of the oddly-formed vessel awakened humorous 
remarks as well as astonishment, nevertheless the 
power of the little steam engine, caused the Clermont 
to overtake sloops and schooners beating to wind- 
ward, and leave them far behind in the race. 

The invitations for this first trip of the Clermont, 
had in some cases been accepted with a degree of hes- 
itancy, for the voyage was an experiment, yet there 
was a sense of fascination in the untried experience. 
There were several ladies on board, among them 
Miss Harriet Livingston, daughter of Walter Livings- 
ton of "Teviotdale" in the Livingston Manor, and sev- 
eral of her cousins. The Manor families were also rep- 
resented by John R. Livingston and John Swift Liv- 

198 



THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 



ingston, beside the Chancellor. As the voyage pro- 
ceeded, apprehension was disarmed by the success- 
ful passage of the boat through the water, and the re- 
lief from previous doubt showed itself in merriment 
and song. 

"Ye banks and braes o' bonny Doon," being Ful- 
ton's favorite song, was sung by the young people in 
the stern, in compliment to the man who had made 
this great effort and won this great success. 

Just before the boat reached Clermont, Chancellor 
Livingston made two memorable announcements, one 
in the form of a prophecy, "that the name of the in- 
ventor would descend to posterity as a benefactor of 
the world," the other of special interest to all present, 
which was the betroihal of Robert Fulton to his 
young relative Harriet Livingston. 

While the boat lay at the Clermont dock on the 
night of August i8th. Captain Brink, who was in com- 
mand, rowed across the river to Saugerties for his 
wife, whom he had promised to "take to Albany in a 
boat driven by a tea-kettle." 

The youngest passenger on the Clermont that Au- 
gust day was Mr. Daniel Gantley, afterward of Ath- 

199 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

ens, N. Y,, who lived to be nearly ninety-four years 
old, and never forgot the peculiar sensations of danger 
and elation experienced by this novel form of locomo- 
tion, nor the amazement the steamboat occasioned 
along the path of its progress. 

It is a noteworthy fact, that in the Hudson-Fulton 
Celebration just passed, John Sanderson Elliott, 
great-grandson of Daniel Gantley, a High School boy 
of Catskill, made the address of the occasion, speaking 
of the great achievements of both Hudson and Fulton, 
and closed by introducing Governor Hughes to the as- 
sembled people. 

The boat left New York at one o'clock on Monday, 
and arrived at Clermont at one o'clock on Tuesday, 
steaming over one hundred and ten miles in twenty- 
four hours. She left the Chancellor's dock again at nine 
o'clock the next morning, and arrived at Albany at 
five in the afternoon, having made the one hundred 
and fifty miles in thirty-two hours. On her trial trip 
the Clermont passed up river through the Athens 
channel, but on her return, pleased the citizens of Hud- 
son by steaming down the Hudson channel, the re- 
turn trip settling any lingering doubts as to the future 

200 



THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 



success of steam-navigation. 

On the 4tli of September the Clermont made 
her first trip as a passenger boat. Every house-top 
and wharf in New York which commanded a view of 
the water, was filled with people eager to gain a sight 
of the wonderful invention, meanwhile warning their 
friends not to go aboard so dangerous a vessel. The 
boat made a circle three times. By this time incred- 
ulity had given place to surprise, and as the steamboat 
moved toward the north, ten thousand people 
cheered vociferously. Fulton stood with flashing eyes 
erect on the deck. It was a moment of supreme vic- 
tory, worth years of effort. At Tarrytown they left 
a passenger, and again at Newburgh, each town giving 
the boat and party aboard an ovation. At West Point 
the whole garrison turned out and cheered. It was a 
voyage of triumph. 

As the Clermont passed Catskill, on a little island 
in the river called Bompie's Hook, (now Catskill 
Point) the passengers saw six boys eagerly watching 
the approach of the steamboat. One of these boys was 
Thurlow Weed, in later years the celebrated politi- 
cian. Catskill mainland not being connected with the 

201 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

Point in those days, the boys had made a connection 
for themselves, by stuffing their clothes in their hats 
and placing the hats on logs pushed ahead of them as 
they swam toward Bompies. When the first streak of 
smoke appeared on the horizon the boys were ready 
for their sight of the first steamboat. 

The residents of Claverack and the citizens of Hud- 
son watched the vessel steam toward Albany even 
more keenly alive to its value in navigation than their 
neighbors further south, for Hudson was a port of en- 
try, and steam would reconstruct her chief industry. 
A good sloop made the journey from Albany to New 
York in forty-eight hours. The new steamboat had 
been able to cut off eighteen hours from this lengthy 
voyage on its return trip. 

The Clermont continued to make trips till the close 
of navigation of that year, making Poughkeepsie, Eso- 
pus, and Hudson stopping places. Shortly after her 
first voyage she made a record-breaking trip from 
New York in twenty-seven hours, landing at Hudson 
with one hundred and twenty passengers. 

One of the resultant benefits of such rapid naviga- 
tion was made public about this time through a unique 

202 



THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 



advertisement in the Hudson Bee. 

"Here's Your Beauties of Lobsters." 
"These, with sea bass, cod and black fish, jumping 
and alive in Hudson market, afford quite a dainty 
to an epicure, one hundred and twenty miles 
from the ocean. They are brought here on the 
steamboat, and sold in the brick market, fresh 
and in good order, every time she arrives from 
New York." 

A year later the following curious explanatory note 
was added to the advertised time-table. 

"As the time at which the Boat may arrive at the 
different places above mentioned, may vary an 
hour, more or less, according to the advantage 
or disadvantage of wind or tide, those who wish 
to come on board will see the necessity of being 
on the spot an hour before the time." 
Going north the boat stopped at West Point at four 
o'clock in the morning. Returning, a landing was 
made at Poughkeepsie at midnight, and at Newburgh 
the same hour as at West Point. The night-watches 
spent on the docks while waiting for the new steam- 
boat, must have given would-be passengers excellent 
opportunities to study the stars at various hours of 
the night. 

203 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

During the winter the gallant little Clermont was 
placed on the ways in the bay south of Tivoli (then 
called Lower Red Hook), where she was rebuilt and 
re-modeled by ship-carpenters from Hudson. Her 
size being much increased, she offered accommoda- 
tions to a larger traveling public. May ist, 1808, she 
was re-launched and re-christened the "North River," 
and in charge of Captain Samuel Jenkins of Hudson, 
was taken to New York, and at the dock at the foot 
of Dey St. the carpenter and cabin work was complet- 
ed. Also at this time the machinery was put on 
board, but proving inadequate to the strain put upon 
it, in a few weeks the boat was supplied with a boiler 
of heavy sheet copper. "Commodore" Wiswall was 
now in command, and once more Chancellor Livings- 
ton and a party of friends made a trial trip, this time 
on the "North River." 

Livingston had made unsuccessful efforts toward 
steam navigation before he met Fulton in Paris. Ful- 
ton in his turn, had failed to secure the requisite 
amount of political and financial support in his ex- 
periments to insure success, but the combined efforts 
of the two men, gave to the world of their day, one of 

204 



THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 



the wonder-working results of applied science. In 1810 
the steamboat "North River" made her record trip 
from New York to Albany in nineteen hours, and a 
centur}' later the world is still reaping the benefits ac- 
corded it by two courageous and inventive minds. 

While Fulton's success was at its height he married 
Harriet Livingston, grand-daughter of the last Lord 
of Livingston Manor, whose engagement had been an- 
nounced on the first trip of the Clermont. She was a 
beautiful and accomplished woman with a charm be- 
yond others to a man of inventive genius. Her belief 
in his talents and ability are said to have amounted al- 
most to a passion. Their married life was an exceed- 
ingly happy one, their union being blessed with four 
children, a son and three daughters. Fulton's love for 
art had continued in conjunction with otlier engross- 
ing pursuits. His painting of his friend Joel Barlow 
and the illustrations of Barlow's Columbiad, had been 
the result of his warm friendship, and his love for the 
artistic. 

An odd conceit was the painting of his wife's moth- 
er, Mrs. Walter Livingston, on one side of a panel, 
and her grandson, little Robert Barlow Fulton, on the 

205 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

other. Grandmother and grandchild were never more 
closely united, — the high-bred face of the descendant 
of the Schuylers, and the delicate face of the child 
with only the panel between them. 

Their home contained much that was of special in- 
terest. The dining table of solid mahogany, standing 
upon claw feet, and formed of two half circles large 
enough when complete to seat a dozen guests ; the 
set of china consisting of three hundred and sixty-five 
pieces, presented to Fulton by Thomas Jefferson, 
and bearing the Coat-of-Arms of the United States, 
which often graced the festal board, were both a part 
of the furnishing of the inventor's home. 

It is in keeping with the family picture to see Mrs. 
Fulton playing the melodies of the day on the harp, 
while her husband and children pursued their art, 
each in their respective way, for all of the children in- 
herited a degree of artistic talent from their father, as 
well as a love for outdoor life, the charm of the water- 
ways, and the delights of horse-back riding across the 
beautiful Livingston Manor. A childish effort of 
Julia Fulton in pencil, portrays a little girl and a boy 
in colonial costumes, clinging close to each other un- 

206 



THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 



der a large umbrella. The quaint childish figures in 
long pantalets, full skirt, and boyish jacket of early- 
date, with the hair of both curling to their shoulders, 
is irresistable in its outlines, even though only the 
backs are visible. 

There is an engraving of Fulton's boyhood in ex- 
istence, with short trousers buckled at the knee, and 
low shoes also with their broad buckles, ruffled shirt 
and old time coat, which is most attractive, but the 
immaturity of the face in no wise compares with the 
manly beauty of the portrait painted by his friend and 
master Benjamin Franklin. It would seem that the 
love of the master for the pupil was the motive power 
that swayed the talent behind the brush. Every brown 
lock on his forehead, every curve of the features, the 
transparent honest}^ of the direct gaze of the blue eyes, 
and even the full grasp of the gifted hands, bespeak 
an affection for the subject which shines through the 
beauty of the physical outlines. As a final thought, — 
an insignia of office, — in the plain background of the 
painting is traced in faint outlines a torpedo blowing 
up a tiny war-ship, to the successful invention of 
which Fulton had given much time. 

207 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

Beautiful as was this home life, it was destined to 
be short-lived. Robert Fulton died on February 24th, 
181 5, at the age of fifty years. In him was lost an in- 
genious and notable inventor, and a beneficent spirit, 
whose future efforts might have blessed the world 
still further, had he been given length of days in com- 
panionship with a wife fitted to inspire and encourage 
the talents of his fertile brain. 

After her husband's death Mrs. Fulton lived for a 
time in New York, then brought her children home 
to her father's house at "Teviotdale," where she died 
herself a few years later. 

The body of Robert Fulton's wife and the mother 
of his children rests to-day under the century-old trees 
in Claverack cemetery, while in the sweeping view to 
the west from this quiet spot, the Catskills guard the 
river as of yore, running like a ribbon of glistening 
blue at their feet, where the steamboats never cease 
their tireless journeys north and south, and Fulton's 
name and fame are honored by thousands of summer 
pilgrims from every land. His name will ever be inter- 
woven for the American people, and for the voyagers 
from across the sea, with the exquisite beauty of the 

208 



THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 



Hudson, and "lest we forget" the Hudson Day Line 
has named its last and most beautiful floating palace 
after the inventor of the steamboat, and hung his por- 
trait painted by his grandson Robert Fulton Ludlow, 
where all may see. 



209 

15 



CHAPTER XXIII. 
THE LEGEND OF "SPOOK ROCK." 

It might be inferred, that with the city of Hudson 
peopled by New Englanders, the Dutch Dominie of 
the Claverack parsonage would have little connection 
with the town, outside of the interest aroused by so 
great progress and commercial activity on the site that 
had once been Claverack Landing, but as in other 
cases, the new roads from Hudson led to the parson- 
age door. 

In the earlier years of the "Proprietors' " settle- 
ment, the Friends' Meeting Houses were the only plac- 
es of worship in Hudson. When that time had passed, 
the road to Claverack had become familiar, and per- 
haps for the brides and grooms traveling toward the 
marriage altar, there was a trace of romance in riding 
along the beautiful banks of Claverack Creek, when 
the road on either side was lined with trees and bushes 
white with spring blossoms, or in June when butter- 

210 



LEGEND OF " SPOOK ROCK." 

cups and daisies sprung up in their pathway, and wild 
roses turned their delicate petals to the summer sun, 
or yet later on, when the forest trees were festooned 
with wild grapevines hanging lush with their heavy 
purple fruit. 

From the time of the settlement of Hudson, the 
names in the Claverack marriage records were no 
longer entirely High and Low-Dutch, but Silver and 
Fairchild, King and Arnold, Pennyman and Hamilton, 
Skinner and Burck, Clark and Ray, Bingham and 
Hathaway, and others of New England birth took 
their places among the long lists of the hereditary 
names of the occupants of the Manors, and the Dutch 
burghers of the country side. It was a day also when 
marriages were often arranged irrespective of parental 
knowledge, and on the pages of the yellowing records 
of one hundred years ago, stand some names promi- 
nent in the public life of the time, whose youthful 
escapade in this direction, awakened great surprise 
when copied by their descendants. 

In 1812 the parsonage family had greatly changed 
Three sons, Jacob and Philip, who had come with their 
parents from New York, and John, who was born in 

211 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

Claverack, had all been admitted to the bar, and were 
living in Schoharie and Catskill. Philip having mar- 
ried Eleanor Demarest, of the Van Bergen family of 
Catskill, and John being also married, had families of 
their own. Charlotte, for many years the only daugh- 
ter of the parsonage, had married William H. Davis, 
a merchant of Catskill, who had been aide-de-camp to 
Washington. John Gabriel and Lewis, younger sons, 
were attending the University of Pennsylvania, fitting 
themselves for the medical profession. About a year pre- 
vious, a son, Charles, had died in his early manhood, 
and this first loss among their children had proved a 
great grief to his parents. At the date mentioned it 
would seem that only the baby Annamaria, who had 
now grown to be a girl of thirteen, was left to make 
sunshine in the rooms of the old parsonage, which had 
once been so full of children's voices and laughter. 

Dominie Gebhard still occasionally preached in the 
Ghent church, though he no longer held regular servi- 
ces there at stated periods as in former days. Until 
some time in 1790 he seems to have had charge of this 
church. After that for a long period of years the little 
clapboarded sanctuary was dependent on occasional 

212 



LEGEND OF " SPOOK ROCK." 



services held by the ministers of adjacent churches, till 
at length in 1822 it became a separate church, and call- 
ed to its pastorate Rev. Peter S. Wyncoop who served 
the congregation for many years. 

In the family Bible of John C. Hogeboom, whose 
first entries were made during Dominie Gebhard's 
charge of the Ghent church, and continued through 
many years, are the births of a large number of chil- 
dren and grandchildren. 

" On the 5th day of July, 1789, my daughter Cynthia 
was born, on Sunday about two o'clock in the morning. 
(Peter Hogeboom my brother, and Ally Hogeboom, 
my sister Godfather and Godmother) was baptized by 
Mr. Gebhard," was one entry. 

The death of the same Cynthia already mentioned, 
is recorded in 1813.. " Dec. 7th at about two o'clock 
in the afternoon my daughter Cynthia died of a dis- 
tressing illness of many years, which she bore with 
Christian fortitude, anxiously awaiting her departure 
from this world of trouble and affliction." 

The great care given to the hour of birth and death, 
grew from the prevalent belief that the hour of death 
would correspond with the hour of birth. Nearly every 

213 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

entry records some event or comment, which 
turns these early Bible records into a family history. 
One brief entry carries with it a touch of special grief, 
as one of the tragedies connected with the Anti-rent 
uprisings. It reads — 

"My father, Cornelius Hogeboom, died the 22d 
day of October, 1791. He was killed in Nobletown, 
(Hillsdale) about three o'clock in the afternoon." 

Various proposals were made by Dominie Gebhard 
that the Claverack church be given an opportunity 
through the votes of its male members, to unite with 
the Classis of Rensselaer, but the opinion of the Con- 
sistory was for many years against it, and the church 
remained an independent organization until the time 
of Dominie Gebhard's English colleague. Rev. Rich- 
ard Sluyter. 

A direct method was employed to protect the church 
from debt. An entry in the church books under this 
head, reading " Resolved, that a magistrate call on 
those persons who do not pay their subscriptions." 
When money promised was not paid, it was collected 
by suit if necessary. 

In these years parents had begun to act as sponsors 

214 



LEGEND OF " SPOOK ROCK. 



in some instances for their own children, and not only 
parsonage grandchildren were brought to the old 
church in Claverack for baptism, but also those of 
many of its earlier members. It is said that Dominie 
Gebhard, in a number of instances, baptized the great- 
grandchildren of those whom he had united in mar- 
riage. 

In all the carefully kept records of this long pastor- 
ate, there is no official account of deaths or funerals, 
yet in the busy pastor's life these must have intersect- 
ed the seasons of joy and thanksgiving, opening wide 
the gates of eternal life to the aged pilgrim and the 
youth cut off in his prime, as the new doors swung op- 
en for the entering generation. Could we but see the 
paths trodden by the faithful pastor's feet in these er- 
rands of consolation, stretching over these fifty years, 
they would make a network of golden sympathy wind- 
ing and counter-winding into every lane and wagon- 
road and turnpike over his wide field of labor, ending 
with their tender ministrations at the door of Manor 
and farm house, leaving there the comforting words 
and heavenly promises, for this world and the world to 
come, of this devoted man of God. 

215 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

For the rest, the multitude of white stones in God's 
acre which lies by the old church, bearing date of this 
half century, tell their own story, and are silent wit- 
nesses of the sorrows of the people, and the labors of 
consolation of their minister. Even the corner where 
the slaves are buried carries its own legend of those 
years when slavery was common in this section of the 
country, but when death came, these dependents were 
given a quiet resting place, and in some cases a stone 
was placed at the head of the grave, telling of the sim- 
ple faithfulness and devotion of one of these dark-faced 
servants. 

Once only is there a record on this subject. This 
entry states that " the church yard is to be furnished 
with lock and key, and for opening lock and breaking 
ground one dollar is to be paid, two shillings for ring- 
ing the bell." 

As the custom of tolling the bell at the passing of a 
life, or the hour of burial, was in force in those days, 
it probably gave rise to a curious old legend, founded 
on a still earlier Indian legend, both of which are still 
told with interest along the banks of Claverack Creek. 
For many years the Begraft family were members of 

216 



LEGEND OF " SPOOK ROCK. 



the Claverack congregation, and between Claverack 
and Hudson a rocky formation of lime and slate of 
some considerable extent still goes by the name of Be- 
craft mountain, though the spelling is changed. Un- 
der its overhanging ledges grow a wealth of ferns and 
wild flowers, and between the mountain and the creek 
from time immemorial, there has been a wagon-road. 
At one of the most picturesque spots in the creek un- 
der the mountain, lies a great boulder, unmoved by 
spring freshets or winter storm, for it is not always 
summer under Becraft. The winter snows powder the 
evergreens and the young saplings that cling to its 
sides, and the ledges of grey rock stretch between the 
green and the white, defying heat and cold, while the 
creek at its base is a frozen sheet of ice, and a white 
blanket of snow covers alike the ferns, the wild flow- 
ers, and the wagon-road. 

Long before the first white settler had discovered 
beautiful Claverack, a tribe of Mohican Indians had a 
village here called " Pot Koke." On more than one 
farm have their battle axes, arrow heads, and ham- 
mers been unearthed by the husbandman, while en- 
gaged in the peaceful occupation of tilling the soil. 

217 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

There is a tradition connected with the Chieftain's 
daughter, that would lead us to believe that the Indian 
colony was not only strong and numerous, but that its 
young squaws were also charming in the eyes of 
neighboring tribes. The Chief of the Mohicans had 
his wigwam on the summit of Becraft Mountain, a safe 
vantage ground in case of hostile attack, for the arrows 
of his followers aimed at an enemy skulking along the 
trail below, would have been fatal, while the Mohicans 
were quite able to defend themselves behind the mighty 
fastnesses of the slate rocks. 

But the Chief had a daughter whose soft dark eyes 
and raven locks, and nut-brown skin were a bewitch- 
ment, and whose slender moccasined feet were swift 
upon the trail. Alas, that her lover was the son of an 
enemy who forgot the tribal hatred, when, hiding from 
tree to tree one day, he had worked his way to the top 
of Becraft in order to discover the weakness of the 
Mohican camp, and saw instead the graceful form of 
the Princess flitting between the wooded aisles at the 
top of the mountain. It was useless to plead with the 
Chief of the Mohicans, though the daughter made the 
effort, and equally useless to fight for the maid, for 

218 



LEGEND OF " SPOOK ROCK." 

the tribe of the young brave was far outnumbered by 
that of the Princess' father. The lover's only hope 
was in strategy. 

A swift runner brought her a tiny roll of birch-bark 
wrapped in a rabbit skin with a love message inside. 
She found it within the flap of her tent, and trembling 
donned her doe-skin robe, and waited till the night 
shut down, and the tribe slept, and only the glow of 
the camp fire was left, then sped over the trail, and 
down the rocks to the shadows of the overhanging 
cliffs. Among the ferns and lichens and wild flowers 
she met her lover. The night air swept their cheeks, 
and the music of the stars sung their happiness. The 
moments sped swiftly by. 

A low rumble in the distance, a flash of light across 
their path, a moment's terror of discovery, and they 
drew close within the shadow of the overhanging 
rocks, shielded by bushes and young trees from the big 
drops of rain. The crash of the thunder rolled over their 
heads, the forked lightning played over the water and 
fields of maize, and they clung to each other in the 
midst of the tumult. Then quicker than thought, more 
sudden than fear, came a heavy crash, a blinding 

219 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

light, and the great boulder rolled into the stream, car- 
rying the lovers with it. 

It was all over in a few moments, the noise and com- 
motion, the flash and the downpour. One by one the 
stars came out again, the young trees shook off the 
rain drops, moved by a gentle breeze, a whip-poor-will 
cried in the night, while the creek skirting the trail lay 
quiet in the starlight, and the overhanging rock had 
found a new resting place for all time in the winding 
stream, becoming a monument to two lovers, a son 
and a daughter of Indian Chiefs of alien tribes. This 
is the Indian legend of " Spook Rock," but for many 
a year the story that has been oftenest told as con- 
nected with this rock, is that it turns over every 
time it hears the Claverack church bell toll, and 
though the great rock has no ears to hear, or power 
to turn in the winding stream, if sound is carried to 
remote distances, affecting the formation of rocks and 
mountains, the impress of almost two centuries of the 
tolling funeral bells of Claverack must have left their 
mark, though unseen, on the hard and rugged sides of 
"Spook Rock," 



220 




MRS. JOHN GABRIEL GEBHARD, 

The Dominie's " Huis Vrouwe." 

"Delineavit A. Phillips 1820." 



CHAPTER XXIV. 
HIS " HUIS VROUWE." 

In the old church records the name of the man who 
stood as sponsor in baptism came first, followed by the 
full maiden name of his wife with the added explana- 
tion " his vrouwe," with two exceptions. One of these 
was the wife of the Patroon, and the other was the 
minister's wife, which were written " his huis vrouwe." 

This latter title was one of respect to the Ladies of 
the Manor and the parsonage. Though the worldly 
possessions differed in the two homes, they each called 
for marked executive ability, an almost boundless hos- 
pitality, a power of leadership and direction equal in 
many cases to that of their husbands, and an habitual 
life of culture and refinement which served as an ex- 
ample to all about them, and made them prominent in 
the social life of the country. 

The Dominie's " huis vrouwe " was a notable house- 
keeper. Any departure from absolute cleanliness and 

221 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

neatness was abhorent to her. Her quilting bars, with 
their edges of homespun, were worn into furrows 
through the extra peg-holes bored that more and more 
quilts might be rolled up tightl}^ making the quilting 
a work of art in its exquisite neatness. The wonderful 
white counterpane on her guest-room bed, with its 
thousands of fine stitches, etching the smooth surface 
into a beautiful design, with its artistic center and bor- 
der of roses, and deer in all four corners, attested to 
her skill with a needle. No linen after the spinning 
and weaving, was whiter than that directed in the 
bleaching, by the Dominie's wife on the parsonage 
lawn. 

Each spring the tailoress went from house to house, 
cutting and fitting clothing for the boys and men from 
the pepper and salt cloth made from the wool of their 
own sheep. Seven boys were always waiting for new 
suits at the parsonage, with the proclivity of boyhood 
to wear holes in elbows and knees. The tailoress was 
followed by the shoemaker, and dyeing was also a part 
of the home work. The parsonage, in common with 
the farm houses, had a cool lean-to for the making of 
butter, while the cooking for such a family was a daily 

222 



HIS " HUIS VROUWE." 



burden. Olekoeks, liverwurst, rollejes, bolletjes, pan- 
lash, — to the Philadelphia woman all these articles of 
food were familiar before she came to reside in the 
Lower Manor of Claverack, and she delighted in keep- 
ing- tlic old home atmosphere in this northern parson- 
age. 

There were two days in the year that the children 
dearly loved. One was New Year's when St. Nicholas 
and his vrouwe always remembered good children, up- 
on the eve of which they stood in a row before the 
great roaring fires, and hand in hand sung, — 

"Santa Klaus, goedt heilig man, 
Knopyebest van Amsterdam, 
Van Amsterdam aan Spanje, 
Van Spanje aan Orange, 
Een brang deze kindjes eenige graps." 

The translation of which is — 

"Santa Claus, good holy man, 
Go your way from Amsterdam, 
From Amsterdam to Spain, 
From Spain to Orange, 
And bring tliese little children toys." 

Some of the gifts on the following morning took the 

form of seed-cakes, representing almost every animal 

on the farm. At a later date, after the keeping of 



223 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

Christmas had become a custom, there were children 
who descended from these old Dutch families, who 
found themselves rich in two gift-giving days only a 
week apart, and the seed-cakes still continued to cele- 
brate New Year's day. 

The second of these happy festival days was Paas 
or Easter. Every boy and girl watched the hens' nests 
with jealous eyes as Paas approached, for the great 
attraction of this day was a special kind of Paas-cakes, 
of which the children were very fond. They were made 
of eggs and flour alone, beaten very light, often in a 
mixing bowl made from the knot of a tree, which 
bowls withstood the wear of time and much beating 
The batter was expected to entirely cover the long- 
handled spider or pan-cake shovel. The making and 
baking of these cakes was a special feat of the slaves 
in most of the households. When the cake was 
browned on one side, the pan was shaken dexterously 
and with a quick move of the long handle, and a toss 
of the spider, was thrown into the air, and turning 
came down on the opposite side. There was a great ri- 
valry among the colored people as to which could 
throw the Paas-cakes the highest and still successfully 

224 



HIS " HUIS VROUWE." 



catch them. The children of the families surrounded 
the great open fire places on these occasions, holding 
their breath with excitement and expectation, and the 
safe return of the Paas-cake to the spider was the sig- 
nal for cheers and exclamations of delight. 

In the competition over tossing the cakes, the stor- 
ies reached large proportions, it having been told on 
good authority that one Paas-cake had been seen go- 
ing out of the top of a chimney only to turn in the air, 
and descend through the chimney's wide mouth on its 
right side in the spider. Nan, the slave-woman at the 
parsonage, was a past-master with Paas cakes, both at 
tossing them, and piling them up with melted butter 
and sugar between, till she had a great platter full, 
when she would cut them down in many triangles 
ready for the Paas breakfast of the Gebhard children. 

Trained nurses were unheard of in 1776 or for many 
a decade afterward, but the Dominie's wife knew all 
who were sick in the congregation and just what might 
be done to help them. She had the firm capable hands 
of the born nurse, and there were few houses in the 
congregation who had not known the sense of relief 
which flowed through tired bodies, when the Domi- 

225 
!6 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

nie's wife came to nurse, or " sit up "with those who 
were ill. There were troubles not easy to carry to the 
minister, but with the minister's wife it was different. 
The mothers in the congregation knew that in her they 
were sure to find sympathy, courage, and strength. It 
was not strange that the congregation adopted the 
custom of calling her "Mere." 

With all the fullness and happiness of her Claverack 
life, she never forgot the home of her girlhood, and she 
was able to imbue her children with a similar affec- 
tion. All of her sons who married except one, took 
to themselves Philadelphia wives, from among the des- 
cendants of the early settlers of Pennsylvania, and it 
grew to be a familiar saying in the family, that Phila- 
delphia was a good place for wives. Hon. John Geb- 
hard of Schoharie, married his cousin, Mary Seitz. Dr. 
Lewis Gebhard married Mary Ann Halberstadt and 
settled in Philadelphia, while Dr. John Gabriel Geb- 
hard, after some years of medical practice in Troy, 
brought his wife, Elizabeth Snyder home to Claver- 
ack. 

It was a great pleasure to the old lady of the parson- 
age to have her Philadelphia daughter-in-law bring 

226 



HIS " HUIS VROUWE." 



with her, as a part of her wedding outfit, beautiful 
damask table-linen, the first imported to this country, 
by her father, John Snyder, and Stephen Girard. There 
were a hundred subjects to talk over of past and pres- 
ent interest. Philanthropy had an early birth in the 
Quaker city, and Elizabeth Snyder's mother had been 
among the first ladies interested in the Blind Asylum 
and other charities. 

Old-fashioned neighborliness and city philanthropy 
are not far apart at their root, and it would have given 
the capable old Dominie's wife a thrill of pleasure to 
have seen her daughter-in-law at a later date, wrap a 
great unbaked batch of bread in a warm blanket, and 
drive with it over several miles to a suffering neigh- 
bor's, where she nursed the sick and baked her bread, 
sending it back to her family at night. Elizabeth Sny- 
der's grandfather had been an elder in Dominie 
Gebhard's church in Worcester, making a tie with the 
old gentleman also. 

Sometimes the family coach drove down from Scho- 
harie with the cousin-wife, and at other times Philip 
and his wife, and Charlotte and her husband drove up 
from Catskill, and for them all the mother had a warm 

227 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

and hospitable welcome. Life was full in the old par- 
sonage. 



228 



CHAPTER XXV. 
CALLING AN ENGLISH COLLEAGUE. 

Many changes had gone over the wide reach of 
Dominie Gebhard's pastorate since the beginning of 
his ministerial service in Claverack, not the least of 
which had been the slow but sure alteration in the 
prevailing language. At the start it had been neces- 
sary for him to become proficient in a tongue not his 
own, and at least partially unfamiliar, that he might 
preach acceptably to his people, the majority of whom 
were of Low-Dutch or Holland origin. 

At the end of forty years, the Dutch language was 
falling into disuse, except among the older portion of 
the congregation, who were still strongly attached to 
their mother tongue. The influence of Washington 
Seminary in their midst, which had trained a genera- 
tion of English-speaking men and women, the close 
contact with the Nantucket settlers of Hudson, as 
well as the going and coming of the citizens of the 

229 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS 

large cities, where English had in a great measure su- 
perseded other languages, had all borne their part in 
effecting a change more perceptible each year. It was 
apparent that the younger part of the congregation 
had become Americanized, and was beginning to feel 
impatient of a language almost obsolete, and which 
they only partially understood. 

That Dominie Gebhard, long the shepherd of this 
flock, understood and co-operated in the desire of the 
younger members for a colleague who could preach 
and perform his pastoral duties in English, is apparent 
from a letter written by him as the President of Con- 
sistory, to the Rev. Richard Sluyter, inviting him to 
preach in the church of Claverack in September, 1815, 
to which he added this sentence, "It may be an advan- 
tage to you finally." 

It was also at this time that the church of Claver- 
ack came under the care of the Classis of Rensselaer 
and the Synod of the Reformed Dutch Church, hav- 
ing existed previous to this date as an independent 
body. Quoting again from a letter from Dominie Geb- 
hard to Mr. Sluyter, "All efforts which have hitherto 
been made to bring this congregation under the Clas- 

230 



CALLING AN ENGLISH COLLEAGUE. 

sis have proved al)ortive ; but this is the first and 
most favorable opportunity to effect that purpose. The 
present Consistory are not averse to it. I am confi- 
dent that the high opinion which the whole congrega- 
tion entertains of your person and talents, will readily 
overcome the caprice of a few individuals. This circum- 
stance is another argument in our behalf, to give our 
call a favorable consideration, and finally to accept it. 
You alone will then be entitled to the merit of having 
brought this congregation under the Classis. May 
the Lord incline your heart to see the necessity of be- 
stowing your labors in this vineyard among us." 

The call was finally accepted by Mr. Sluyter, with 
the stipulation that he should preach "three-fourths of 
the Sabbaths of each and every year in the Re- 
formed Dutch Church of Claverack," and that the 
other "fourth of the Sabbaths" be given to Hillsdale, 
which united in the call, and later another "fourth" 
was given to the church of Ghent. About this time 
it was estimated that Claverack alone numbered five 
hundred families. 

As an addition to a " resolution to call an English 
speaking colleague to assist Dominie Gebhard," there 

231 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

went on record one sentence, which stands boldly 
forth for the unalterable attachment of the older ele- 
ment in the congregation to the customs of their 
youth, and the tongue of the home-land. "The Dutch 
call shall remain unaltered, integer, as it now stands." 

With this change the more active labors of the 
church devolved on Mr. Sluyter, but preaching every 
fourth Sunday, and often the second also, visiting the 
Dutch-speaking members, baptizing the children, mar- 
rying the young people, visiting the sick, and occa- 
sionally administering the Sacrament, went on with 
the senior pastor as before, while the more strenuous 
labors of the pastorate, its new endeavors, the work of 
the outlying districts especially of a revival nature, 
fell to the charge of the younger minister. 

Life had begun to pour some of its fruits into Dom- 
inie Gebhard's hands. His eldest son, General Jacob 
Gebhard, one of the first attorneys of Schoharie Coun- 
ty, had served several terms as Senator of his State. 
Also following his father's example, he with nine other 
men interested in educational advancement, formed 
themselves into a body corporate for the establishment 
of Schoharie Academy. 

233 



CALLING AN ENGLISH COLLEAGUE. 

Honorable John Gebhard, a younger son, was the 
first Surrogate of Schoharie County, and later was 
elected a member of the Seventeenth Congress from 
the same section. This Congress has been perpetuated 
in a unique and wholly personal fashion, the portraits 
of the entire Congress having been painted by Profes- 
sor Samuel F. B. Morse, later of telegraph fame. Both 
General Gebhard and his brother John, were men of 
large political influence, an unusual feature of their 
public life being their leadership of two opposite po- 
litical parties. To the Schoharie branch of the Geb- 
hard family our State owes its first geological survey, 
as well as the earliest classification of its native flora. 

Two younger sons, Dr. Lewis Gebhard and Dr. John 
Gabriel Gebhard were at this time practicing medicine 
in Philadelphia and Troy. 

Sorrow had visited the absent members of the fam- 
ily, and the parsonage was once more full of chil- 
dren. In the year following the death of the Domi- 
nie's young son Charles, his elder son Philip, a promi- 
nent lawyer of Catskill, had died, leaving a wife and 
three young children. Charlotte, for many years the 
Dominie's only daughter, was also a widow with three 

233 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

children, and their grandfather and grandmother open- 
ed the doors of the old parsonage to the widow and the 
orphan. For a time the parsonage once more rang 
with childish voices, and the grandmother made ole- 
koeks, and rocked the grandchildren in the twilight, 
singing the old Dutch songs again to the little ones 
as she had sung them to her own childen, while in the 
long hours of sunlight she taught the girls to spin, and 
weave, and bleach linen, to sew in finest stitches, and 
to make the rich preserves, and candied and dried 
fruits, for which the Dutch were famous. 

One of these grandchildren, William H. Davis, in 
his old age, remembered weeding the beans in the 
parsonage garden in his childhood, and passing up 
bricks to the masons who were building the vestibules 
and new steeple to the old church. Another of these 
boyish recollections paints a picture peculiar to its day 
and generation. 

Monday was the minister's rest day, then as now. 
Whether it was the Dutch Dominie's blue day in the 
usual significance, it was surely so in a peculiar sense. 
By this time there were ministers settled in many of 
the outlying districts, which had been only preaching 

234 



CALLING AN ENGLISH COLLEAGUE. 



stations in the early days. Many of these men were of 
Dutch or German extraction, with the music-loving, 
pipe-smoking tastes and customs of their race. On 
Monday morning the roads to the Claverack parson- 
age saw different ministers' gigs, or at times only a 
Dominie on horseback, drawing toward one center. 
When they had all gathered in Dominie Gebhard's liv- 
ing room, and the air was blue with smoke, they turn- 
ed the occasion into a musical symposium as well, as 
they took their turns at the little German piano, play- 
ing favorite tunes or long remembered melodies of the 
home-land. It is not quite our modern idea of a minis- 
tet 's club, but if theology were given a second place in 
these Monday morning ministerial assemblies, at least 
they were a homeopathic remedy for a minister's blue 
Monday. 



235 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE FIRST ROBERT LIVINGSTON'S CHILD- 
REN AND GRANDCHILDREN. 

An account of a voyage taken in 1769 by the pro- 
prietor of a wide tract of land called Smith's patent, in 
the middle of New York State, gives some interesting 
facts concerning the Manors and the Manor life along 
the upper Hudson, from an observer's standpoint. It 
says: 

"May 8th. — We went on shore to Two Stone 
Farm Houses on Beekman Manor in the County 
of Dutchess, the Men were absent and the Women 
and children could speak no other Language than 
Low Dutch, our Skipper was interpreter. One of 
these Tenants for Life, or a very long Term, or for 
lives (uncertain which) pays twenty Bushels of Wheat 
in Kind for 97 acres of cleared Land, and liberty to get 
Wood for necessary Uses anywhere in the Manor — 
12 eggs sold here for six pence. Butter 14 d per pound 
and 2 shad cost 6d. One Woman was very Neat, and 
the Iron hoops of her pails scowered bright, the 
Houses are mean. We saw one Piece of good meadow 

236 



THE FIRST ROBERT LIVINGSTON. 

which is scarce hereaway, the wheat was very much 
thrown out, the Aspect of the Farms rough and hilly 
Hke all the rest and the Soil a stiff Clay. One Woman 
had Twelve good countenanced Boys and Girls all 
clad in Homespun both Linen and Woolen, here was 
a Two-wheeled Plow drawn by 3 horses abreast, a 
Scythe with a short, crooked Handle and a Kind of 
Hook both used to cut down Grain, for the Sickle is 
not much known in Albany County or in this part of 
Dutchess." 

"9th. — We arose in the Morng opposite a large 
Brick House on the East Side belonging to Mr. Liv- 
ingston Father to Robert R. Livingston, the Judge in 
the Lower Manor of Livingston. Albany County 
now on either Hand, and sloping Hills here and 
there covered with Grain like all the rest we had seen, 
much thrown out by the Frost of last Winter. Land- 
ing on the W^est Shore we found a number of People 
fishing with a Sein, they caught plenty of Shad and 
Herring, and use Canoes altogether, having long, neat 
and strong Ropes made by the People themselves of 
Elm Bark. Here we saw the first Indian, a Mohicon 
named Hans, clad in no other Garment than a shat- 
tered Blanket, he lives near the Kaatskill and had a 
Skunk Skin for his Tobacco Pouch, the Tavern of this 
Place is most wretched — Trees are cut in Leaf, Cattle 
and Sheep, nothing different from ours, are now feed- 
ing on the Grass which is nearly as forward as with 
us when we left Burlington, the Trees quite as for- 
ward, and the White Pine is common. One Shad 
taken with the rest had a Lamprey eel about 7 inches 

237 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

long fastened to his Back. I was informed here by a 
Person concerned in measuring it, that the Distance 
from KaatsKill Landing to Schoharie is 32 1-2 miles 
reckoned to Capt. Eckerson's, a good Wagon Road 
and Produce brot. down daily from thence to Cher- 
ry Valley half a Day's Journey, that People are now 
laying out a New Road from bopus Kill to Schoharie 
which is supposed to be about 32 1-2 miles, Sopus 
Creek is about 11 Miles below KaatsKill Creek, and 
a Mile below where we now Landed, they say that 7 
or 8 Sloops belong to Sopus — the Fish are the same in 
Hudson's River above the Salt Water as in the Dela- 
ware — the Skipper bought a Parcel of Fish here cheap, 
these Fishermen draw their Nets oftener than ours, 
not stopping between the Draughts. At three ocloc 
we passed by the German Camp, a small Village so 
called, having Two Churches, situated on the East 
Side of the River, upon a rising Ground which shows 
the Place to Advantage, some iJistance further on the 
same Side of the River we sailed by the Upper Manor 
House of Livingston, a quantity of low cripple Land 
may be seen on the opposite Side, and this reaches 4 
Miles to the Kaats Kill called 36 Miles from Albany ; 
ofif the Mouth of this Creek we have a view of the 
large House built by John Dyer the Person who made 
the Road from hence to Schoharie at the Expense of 
400 Lbs. if common Report may be credited — Two 
Sloops belong to KaatsKill, a little beyond the Mouth 
whereof lies the large Island of Vastic — there is a 
House on the North Side of the Creek and another 
with several Saw Mills on the South Side but no Town 



238 



THE FIRST ROBERT LIVINGSTON. 



as we expected. Sloops go no further than Dyer about 
a Half a Mile up the Creek, the Lands on both sides 
of Kaats Kill belong to Van Berger, Van Vecthe, Sal- 
isbury, DuBois and a man in York, their lands, as our 
Skipper says Extend up the Creek 12 Miles to Barber 
the English Gentleman his Settlement, the Creek runs 
through the Kaats Kill Moimts said hereabouts to be 
a Distance of 12 or 14 Miles from the North River, but 
there are Falls above which obstruct the Navigation 
(these particular enquiries were made because this 
was supposed to be the nearest Port to our newly 
purchased Territory). We landed in the Evening on 
the KaatsKill Shore 4 Miles above the Creek, but 
could gain no satisfactory Intelligence, only that the 
Dutchess of Gordon and her Husband Col. Staats 
Long Morris were just gone from Dyer's House for 
Cherry Valley and Susquehanna with Two Wagons, 
they went by the way of Freehold by the Foot of the 
Mountains on this Side, and so over them to Scho- 
harie, guessed to be about 32 1-2 Miles as was said 
before." 

" loth. — We passed by Sunday Islands where of 
Scutters Island affords a good low Bottom fit for 
Meadow and some of it is improved, Bear's Island 
said to be the beginning of the Manor of Rensselaer- 
wic which extends on both Sides of the River, the 
Lords of the Manors are called by the common Peo- 
ple Patroons, Bearen Island or Bear's Island 
just mentioned is reputed to be twelve Miles below 
Albany — Cojemans Houses with Two Grist Mills and 
Two Saw Mills stand a little above on the ^Vest 



239 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

Side and opposite is an Island of about Two 
Acres covered with young Button Wood Trees which 
Island, our Skipper says, has arisen there to his 
Knowledge within i6 years and since he has navigat- 
ed the River — more low bottom Land is discovered as 
we pass up, generally covered with Trees, being clear- 
ed might be made good Meadow by Banking or Im- 
provement to which the Inhabitants are altogether 
Strangers, the upper End of Scotic's Island is a fine 
cleared Bottom not in Grass but partly in Wheat and 
partly in Tilth, however there was one rich Meadow 
improved, we saw the first Batteaux a few Miles be- 
low Albany, Canoes being the common Craft. One 
Staats House is prettily fixed on a rising Ground in 
a low Island, the City of Albany being 3 Miles aHead 
we discovered for the first Time, a Spot of Meadow 
Ground Plowed and Sowed with Peas in the Broad 
Cast Way, the Uplands are now covered with Pitch 
Pine and are sandy and barren as the Desarts of New 
Jersey, as we approach the town the Houses multiply 
on each Shore and we observe a Person in the Act of 
Sowing Peas upon a fruitful Meadow on an Island to 
the right. The Hudson near Albany seems to be about 
a Half Mile over. Henry Cuyler's Brick House on the 
East Side about a Mile below the Town looks well, 
and we descry the King's Stables a long wooden Build- 
ing on the left, and on the same side Philip Schuyler's 
Grand House with whom at present resides Colonel 
Bradstreet (since Deceased and Schuyler is now a Ma- 
jor Gen. in the service of the United States) Col. John 
Van Rensselaer has a good House on the East Side. 

240 



THE FIRST ROBERT LIVINGSTON. 

At Half after lo oCloc we arrived at Albany estimat- 
ed to be 164 Miles by Water from N. York and by 
land 157. * * * Stephen Van Rensselaer, the Pa- 
troon, or Lord of the Manor of Rensselaerwick his 
House stands a little above the Town, he is a young 
Man (since deceased)." 

The foregoing journal gives some idea of the life of 
the tenants of the Manors of the upper Hudson a iew 
years prior to the Revolutionary War. Every decade 
after that brought changes not only on the farms, but 
the life of the Manors themselves changed with each 
succeeding generation. When Robert Livingston 
bought the first tracts of his Manor land, the price 
paid to the Indians was in "guilders. Blankets and 
Child's Blankets, large shoes and small, large and 
small stockings, guns, powder, staves of lead, caps, 
tin kettles, axes, adzes, two pounds of paint, twenty 
little scissors, twenty little looking glasses, one hun- 
dred fish hooks, one hundred pipes, nails, tobacco, 
knives, rum, and beer, and four stroud coats, and two 
duffel coats." 

Upon the payment of this price the lands were to be 
"delivered free and unburdened to Robert Livingston," 
save only "that the previous Indian owners should 

241 
17 



THE PARSONAGE BETV/EEN TWO MANORS. 



have the right of fishing in the Kill and hunting deer, 
provided they brought the head to the new owner." 
There was a marginal note added to this document by 
Tamaranachquae an Indian woman, who stipulated be- 
fore signing the contract, that she should have the 
privilege "to plant for four years a little hook of land." 

This first grant was for tv/o thousand acres on 
Hudson's River. 

In 1685 there was another purchase of land, 
and both tracts were erected into a Manor, with the 
right to "One Court Leet and one Court Baron, to 
hold and to keep at such time and times, and so often 
yearly as Robert Livingston or his heirs should see 
meet." Eventually Robert Livingston's grants of land 
reached sixteen miles long and twenty-four broad, for 
which he paid the Crown a yearly rent of "eight and 
tAventy shillings, Currant money of this country." 

The boundary lines of the Manor were drawn by 
distances from the spot where "the Indians have laid 
several heaps of stones together by an ancient custom 
used among them," along "kills" and "mountain sides" 
and "runs of water" to other stones, and on to "five 
lime trees marked by Saint Andrew's Cross." On the 

243 



THE FIRST ROBERT LIVINGSTON. 

old maps of Livin^^ston Manor a certain point is mark- 
ed "Manor Rock" which is presumably one of these 
old piles of stones which the Indians had thrown one 
upon the other. The earlier maps of 17 14 also contain 
a print of the group of five lime trees, marking one 
corner of the estate. 

In 1721 through the influence of the first Lord of the 
Manor, a church was built, to which an "able and pious 
Dutch Reformed Protestant minister from Flolland" 
was to be called, and at the time of his death the fol- 
lowing year, he willed a number of acres of land for a 
parsonage glebe, and still further acres for a sustain- 
ing fund for the church. Although Robert Livingston 
had been instrumental in erecting a church, it seems 
to have been largely for the benefit of the tenants of 
the estate for the first fifty years, except in case of 
death, when the members of the Livingston family 
were brought home to be laid in the vault beneath the 
Manor Church. The Revolutionary War effected a 
change in this respect. This patriotic family being 
driven from the cities, the Manor Church, as well as 
the homes at Livingston, took on greater importance, 
and the church books began to bear record that many 

243 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

Livingston babies were baptized here, and older mem- 
bers of the family were married in the Manor Houses, 
while the noted Dr. Livingston who had been compell- 
ed to flee from New York took charge of the Manor 
Church during eighteen months of these troublous 
times. The old Manor Church and the first Manor 
House were only a mile and a half apart, the church 
being at Staatje, (little village). 

In this same old record book, whose entries begin 
in 1723, there is a page written by John H. Livingston 
in finest script, under date of 1781, the language em- 
ployed being Low Dutch. An entry is also to be found 
here of the baptism of "Johannes, son of Hendrick 
Van Rensselaer and Elizabeth Van Brug, Oct. 20th, 
1744," which took place in the Manor Church at a time 
when the Claverack church was without a pastor, this 
Hendrick being a younger son of Hendrick Van Rens- 
selaer the first Proprietor of the Lower Manor of Rens- 
selaerwick, and among the early settlers of Claverack. 

The first Manor House was very different from 
those which followed. The walls, as in all well built 
houses of that period, were built for protection, and 
were so thick that the windows looked like mere in- 

244 



THE FIRST ROBERT LIVINGSTON. 

dentations. It was low ceiled and heavy raftered, and 
an old story connected with it, affirms that the first 
Lord Robert Livingston kept his money on the floor 
of his bedroom. It was literally his "pile," and a place 
of untold wealth in the eyes of the children and ser- 
vants who passed his door, and looking in caught 
fleeting glimpses of heaps of Spanish coins upon the 
floor. In later years an occasional rusty coin has been 
unearthed near the site of the old Manor House, which 
has been thought to be one of these first rolling Span- 
ish doubloons. This primitive bank had no Board or 
bank officials connected with it, and its President, and 
day and night guard, was the Lord of the Manor him- 
self, whose strong personality seems to have been its 
only safety and defense. 

The second Lord of the Manor, Philip the eldest son 
of Robert, did not live permanently at Linlithgo, but 
came and went as the business of the estate called him. 
However there are records of parties of children and 
grandchildren, and occasional friends in need of coun- 
try air, coming to the Manor for long stays during the 
summer months, or a bride and groom spending a hon- 
eymoon there. One of these happy honeymoons spent 

245 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

at Livingston Manor was that of Sarah Livingston, 
Philip Livingston's daughter, who chose her country 
home even in windy March for a wedding trip, on her 
marriage to Wilham Alexander. There was no hint 
of spring in the air at this time of year, but like a host 
of later dwellers along the banks of the Hudson, they 
probably saw that yearly marvel, the ice moving down 
the Hudson to the sea. 

The marriage of "Sally Livingston" seems to have 
been pleasing to her family. On the birth of a daugh- 
ter a year later, a humorous letter from Robert, her 
eldest brother, to his brother-in-law, says : 

"I congratulate you on the increase in your family, 
and hope in the future my sister will beget a more 
masculine kind, and not spoil the family with such 
Lilliputians as your daughter." 

Upon the death of Philip, the Manor again had a res- 
ident proprietor in the person of this same Robert, 
Philip's eldest son, who married Mary Tong. 

Sons and grandsons had built Manor Houses on 
sightly locations in every direction before the year 
1800, but during the war, and for several decades after- 
ward, Robert Livingston, the third Lord, lived in the 

246 




ROBERT LIINGSTON 
Third ami last Lord of Livingston Manor. 



THE FIRST ROBERT LIVINGSTON. 

old Manor House while at Livingston, for nearly all 

the family had winter homes in New York or Albany, 

as well as on the Livingston Manor. 

Governor William Livingston of "Liberty Hall" 

New Jersey, wrote his brother Robert from Trenton 

in December of 1781 in reference to the visit of one oi 

his daughters to the Manor. 

"Dear Brother: I hear that your very numerous 
family is going to be increased by one of mine. I fear 
Susan will be troublesome to a house so overrun with 
company as yours. But my poor girls are so terrified 
by the frequent incursions of the refugees into Eliza- 
bethtown, that it is a kind of cruelty to insist on their 
keeping at home, especially as their mother chooses 
rather to submit to her present solitary life, than to 
expose them to such disagreeable apprehensions. But 
she herself will keep her ground to save the place from 
being ruined, and I must quit it to save my laody from 
the Provost in New York, so that we are all scattered 
about the country. But by the blessing of God, and 
the instrumentality of General Washington and Rob- 
ert Morris, I hope we shall drive the devils to old 
England before next June." 

This letter tells the story of a house full of guests at 

the low-browed old Manor House at Linlithgo, and 

not a summer party, but at a time when the roads were 

white with snow, and the river was a pathway of ice. 

247 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

We may imagine that there were merry sleighride par- 
ties, and that the slaves who lived in the outhouses 
near the Manor House kept the fires roaring in the 
great fire-places, and warming-pans ready for the 
Manor beds, in the efifort to keep out the one unwel- 
come guest, Jack Frost ; that the apples and cider 
stored away in the cellars beneath the house, were 
greatly enjoyed by the guests, and that Susan Liv- 
ingston did not regret that the troubles of war sent 
her to her uncle's for a genuine Manor Christmas. 

To a friend Governor Livingston speaks again of 
his daughter, when it was the gayeties of city life 
which were giving her pleasure : 

"My principal Secretary of State, which is one of 
my daughters, is gone to New York to shake her heels 
at the balls and assemblies of a metropolis, which 
might as well be more studious of paying its taxes 
than of instituting expensive diversions. * * My 
secretary is as celebrated for writing a good hand as 
her father is notorious for scribbling a bad one. 

I am, &c., 
"WILLIAM LIVINGSTON." 

This same William Livingston, the patriotic Gov- 
ernor of New Jersey, had much mechanical talent, and 
was fond of entertaining his leisure hours with tools. 

248 



THE FIRST ROBERT LIVINGSTON. 

He said to his daughter one day, "Come with me, my 
dear, and see how many houses I own, and how rich 
I am in real estate." She followed him, to find in his 
study and workshop a large number of wren houses, 
whicli he had made with great enjoyment, and after- 
ward put up on his piazza, and in trees all over his 
place. He was also very fond of children, and delight- 
ed in the visits of his sons and daughters and their 
children. A letter written to his son-in-law Mr. Rid- 
ley evinces this pleasure to a marked degree. 

"Suppose, in reality, that you, and and Mr. and 

Mrs. Jay, and should come to Liberty Hall next 

cherry time; why then, with my romping with some 
upon the piazza, and shooting robins with others out 
of the mazzard trees, and talking and romping with 
the elder boys and girls, and their fathers and mothers 
around the table, I protest, as some ladies say, that I 
would not exchange such a scene of happiness for any 
gratification of the Grand Seigneur." 

William Livingston's daughters were as welcome 
guests at their uncle Robert's at Livingston Manor, 
as the Schuyler girls were at the Lower Van Rensse- 
laer Manor. In the maps of 1798, previously referred 
to, the old Manor House waves a flag or pennant from 
its highest gables, and in the imaginations of the Liv- 

249 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

ingston girls of Liberty Hall, a flag always waved 
from this happy country home. In the spring time the 
breath of the trailing-arbutus, blossoming under the 
leaves in the woods, and in the fall the spicy odor of 
the Chancellor's rare fruits, drew them toward the Liv- 
ingston country. 

During the war, Liberty Hall was open to much 
hostile attention from the British, but the patriotism 
of their father only bred greater loyalty to the Colo- 
nies in the hearts of his children. In a letter written 
by one of the Governor's daughters to a friend in I777? 
we gain a glimpse of the state of things which sent Su- 
san on a visit to the Manor at a later date : 

"K. has been to Elizabethtown, found our 

house in a ruinous situation. General Dickenson had 
stationed a Captain with his artillery company in it, 
and after that it was kept for a bullock's guard. K — 
waited on the General, and he ordered the troops re- 
moved the next day, but then the mischief was done. 
Everything is carried ofif that mama had collected for 
her accommodation, so that it is impossible for her to 
go down to have the grapes and other things secured, 
the very hinges, locks and panes of glass are taken 
away." 

A couple of years later her father wrote to his daugh- 
ter Catherine visiting in Philadelphia : 

250 



THE FIRST ROBERT LIVINGSTON. 

"I know there are a number of flirts in Philadelphia 
equally famed for their want of modesty, as want of pa- 
triotism, who will triumph in our over-complaisance to 
the Red Coat prisoners lately arrived in that metropo- 
lis. I hope none of my connections will imitate them, 
either in the dress of their heads, or the still more 
Tory feelings of their hearts." 

"I am your affectionate father, 

' " WILLIAM LIVINGSTON." 

In her eighteenth year Sarah Livingston married 
Hon. John Jay, and to the same daughter as in the pre- 
vious letter, a few months later Governor Livingston 
wrote concerning them : 

"I am obliged to Mr. Morris for his promise of giv- 
ing me the earliest intelligence of their arrival in 
France. I hope his business with the four quarters of 
the globe will not eft'ace it from his memory. I have 
already suffered more anxiety on their account than 
I should have imagined I could be affected by on any 
account. The tenderness of a parent's heart can never 
be known till it is tried." 

Miss Susan Livingston, who was her father's secre- 
tary, proved her kinship to her patriotic parent, when 
she saved his papers from the British on one of theii 
raids. Governor Livingston, being warned, had left 
home at an early hour to escape capture by the Red 
Coats, entrusting his valuable papers to Susan's 

251 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

keeping. She placed the papers in a carriage box, and 
took them to a room in the upper story, then climbed 
out of a window to watch the approach of the soldiers. 
An officer, seeing her there, warned her to go within, 
for she was in danger of being taken for a man and 
fired upon. She turned to obey, but found it impossi- 
ble to return by the window, through which she had 
found so easy egress. 

Seeing her plight, the young officer entered the 
house, and sprang up the stairs, lifting her in through 
the window. With this vantage, she asked his name, 
and upon its being given as "Lord Cathcart" with a 
sudden inspiration she appealed to him for protection 
for a box of her own personal possessions, offering 
to open her father's library to the soldiers. Her re- 
quest was complied with, and the box was guarded, 
while her father's library was ransacked, with no re- 
sults detrimental to the patriot cause. 

Mrs. Ellet gives a spicy letter from Kitty Livingston 
to her sister, Mrs. John Jay, in which many of the 
members of the Manor families of the upper Hudson, 
are mentioned. 



252 



THE FIRST ROBERT LIVINGSTON. 



"May 23rd, 1780." 
"Lady Mary and Mrs. Watts have rented Mrs. Mont- 
gomery's farm for two years ; cousin Nancy Brown is 
one of their family. Colonel Lewis has purchased a 
house in Albany ; one of the girls lives there with Git- 
tey. fie and Robert have each presented Cousin Liv- 
ingston with a granddaughter. The Chancellor's is a 
remarkably fine child. Mrs. Livingston never looked 
so well as she did the last winter, and was so much 
admired in Philadelphia. She and Mrs. Morris are in- 
separable ; she was also a first favorite of Mr. Morris. 
His esteem I think very flattering. Robert is in Con- 
gress, and T believe is at present there; she is to ac- 
company him in the fall. General and Mrs. Schuyler 
are at Morristown. Tlie General is one of the tliree 
that compose a Committee from Congress. They ex- 
pect to be with the army all summer. Mrs. Schuyler 
returns to Albany when the campaign opens. Apropos : 
Betsey Schuyler is engaged to our friend Colonel 
Hamilton. She has been at Morristown. at Dr. Coch- 
rane's since last February. Morristown continues to 
be lively." 

It was this same Kitty Livingston who married Mat- 
thew Ridley of Baltimore, and who sent the following 
order to Nantes. In a return letter from John Jay dated 
Madrid, Jan. 21st, 1782, he hopes that at least one 
of the parcels may reach its destination : 

"Be pleased to send for Miss Kitty VV. Livingston, 
to the care of Hon. R. Morris, Esq., at Philadelphia, 

253 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

by the first three good vessels bound there, the three 
following parcels, viz. 

"No. I to contain 2 white embroidered patterns for 
shoes; 4 pair of silk stockings; a pattern for a Negli- 
gee of light colored silk, with a set of ribbons suitable 
to it ; 6 pairs of kid gloves : 6 yards of cat-gut and ca- 
puire in proportion; 6 yards of white silk gauze." 

"No. 2 to contain the same as above, except the silk 
for the Negligee must not be pink colored, but of any 
color that Mrs. Johnson may think fashionable and 
pretty. The shoes and ribbons may be adapted to it." 

"No. 3 to contain the same as above, except that 
the silk for the Negligee must be of a different color 
from the other two, and the shoes and ribbons of a 
proper color to be worn with it." 

Perhaps the most interesting of the incidents con- 
nected with the patriotic Kitty Livingston's career, 
was the letter General Washington sent her, from Val- 
ley Forge. 

" General Washington having been informed lately 
of the honor done him by Miss Kitty Livingston in 
wishing for a lock of his hair, takes the liberty of in- 
closing one, accompanied by his most respectful com- 
pliments." 

These girls, among the other cousins, continued to 

come and go at the Livingston Manor, and in time 

their children came also. The journey on the sloop 

up river was of itself a great pleasure. The sloops oft 

254 



THE FIRST ROBERT LIVINGSTON. 

en sailed in little fleets, with possibly friends and ac- 
quaintances on the neighboring white-winged vessels. 
Sailing through the beautiful Highlands by day, and 
anchoring at night under some craggy shelter where 
the whip-poor-will, or some splashing fish, made eerie 
noises in the shadows, and the sky above their heads 
swept in a great dark circle spangled with countless 
stars, was an experience to look forward to wath joy. 

All along the wharves of the upper Hudson were 
waiting relatives. The Chancellor's, Madam Living- 
ston's, and John Livingston's houses were all near the 
river, and on the days when sloops were expected, 
there were sure to be some members of the Manor fam- 
ilies awaiting merchandise, and others with an eager 
welcome for the expected guests. 

On the Manor road which ran further inland, lived 
the "Widow Livingston," Henry W. Livingston, and 
General Harry Livingston in his bachelor hall, while 
at the crossing of the Manor-road and the postroad 
was the home of Walter Tryon Livingston, youngest 
son of Peter R. Livingston. This house at the cross- 
roads held one son and six daughters who added a 
large share to the life and interest of the Livingston 

255 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

country. Surely Livingston Manor was a place of 
which one might dream, and toward which the travel- 
er would turn joyful and willing feet. 

Out of the happy visits to the Manor in the early 
days, we have the printed record of a romantic out- 
come. Mrs. Lamb writes : 

" The newspapers in November, 1796, chronicle a 
marriage and reception at the Governor's mansion, as 
follows: 'Married on the 3rd, at his Excellency's 
John Jay, Governor, Government House, John Liv- 
ingston of Livingston Manor, to Mrs. Catherine Rid- 
ley, daughter of the late Governor William Living- 
ston.' The bride wa.s Mrs. Jay's accomplished and 
piquant sister, Kitty Livingston, who in 1787 became 
the wife of Matthew Ridley of Baltimore, and after 
a brief wedded happiness was left a widow." 



256 



CHAPTER XXVII. 
MANOR JUNKETINGS. 

John Livingston, a son of Robert, had built his house 
at Oak Hill in 1798. The walls, like those of the old 
Manor were very thick, and built of brick made on 
the estate, the woodwork also was constructed from 
trees hewn from the Manor forests. The old Lord's 
wide acres provided for all the needs of a household 
from the foundations to the roof. Within were deep 
window-seats, and stairs with old fashioned comfort- 
able landings, and high mantels decorated with the 
beautiful putty-work figures of the past. 

There were variations in the building of the various 
Manor Houses, but in each were the furnishings of 
the colonial period, Chippendale chairs, high-post, 
elaborately festooned bedsteads, pier glasses, and in- 
laid tables, beautiful little sewing tables which held 
the embroidery of the lady of the Manor in 

257 
18 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

its tiny drawers, and many times some rare toy 
for the pleasure of the child who hung about 
its mother's knees, as she traced the fine stitches 
in her needle work. Embroidering chair-seats was a 
favorite occupation of the Manor ladies and their 
guests. One of these pieces of needle-work made by 
a daughter of Chancellor Livingston is still preserved. 
There were treasures in silver and china also, much of 
the silver being inherited from the first Lord Robert, 
and marked with the family crest. 

There is a pen portrait of John Livingston written 
by one of his descendants, which almost brings the 
genial and courtly proprietor of Oak Hill into our pres- 
ence, after the passing of over a century. "His style 
of dress was that worn by all the courtly gentlemen of 
the olden time, — a black dress coat with knee breeches 
fastened over his black silk stockings with silver 
buckles; similar buckles of a larger size were in his 
shoes. He had a high forehead, beautiful blue eyes, a 
straight nose and very determined mouth. His hair 
was carefully dressed every morning, the long queue 
was rewound, the whole head plentifully besprinkled 
with powder, and the small curls that had remained 

258 



MANOR JUNKETINGS. 



in papers during breakfast time, adjusted on each side 
of his neck." 

The Livingstons were still buying land and building 
saw-mills and flour-mills, and managing iron works 
as in earlier days of the Manor, only the purchases 
were made now in distant parts of the State, and in 
western lands. 

There were dinner parties in those days where one 
great house entertained the guests of another ; even- 
ing gatherings of neighbors dropping in unexpectedly 
on moonlight nights, "water-picnics" in summer, and 
sleighride and skating parties in winter, with laughter 
and frolic. When the river was a glare of new ice aft- 
er three zero nights, the venturesome spirits among 
the young people might stray down to its banks and 
embark on some swift-flying ice boat, skimming over 
the surface of the black ice before the wind, hearing 
the resounding noises of cracks in the new^ ice, avoid- 
ing air holes where groups of wild birds quenched their 
thirst in a circle about the open water, sweeping on 
with a thrill of excitement and pleasure over the wide 
expanse of the frozen river, while the cold winds blew 
down from the north, and the sky hung a half circle 

259 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

of steely blue over their heads, and the sun in the west 
sent comforting rays of warmth through their chilled 
bodies. 

Less exciting, but still having the form of novelty, 
were the river sleigh-rides, when the fallen snow had 
turned the Hudson into a great white thoroughfare, 
and a sleigh-ride party, on a starry night drove up or 
down the river to their destination, wrapped in warm 
robes with soap-stones at their feet, and a tingle of joy 
in the air, yet glad to reach the door thrown wide open 
into the night, flooding the snow with a cheerful light, 
where warmth and welcome awaited them. Often they 
danced till the small hours in the long drawing-rooms, 
where the chill in the distant corners sent the dancers 
back to the nearer circles about the crackling log-fires 
in the great fire places. At Oak Hill alone there were 
nine sons and daughters, and the many groups of cou- 
sins of the different Manor Houses with their guests, 
made a merry company of almost any neighborhood 
gathering. 

All the Livingstons were ship-owners, and the sloops 
at the docks were a perpetual temptation on the blos- 

260 



MANOR JUNKETINGS. 



soming days of spring, or in the balmy summer time, 
or during the glorious autumn days. 

"Our two voyages" (to New York and back) "occu- 
pied nine days and seven hours," wrote one of the 
voyagers, "and we were received at Oak Hill with as 
hearty a welcome as if we had performed the journey 
around the world." 

The Manor servants were still negro slaves, and the 
slaves on John Livingston's estate lived in the base- 
ment of the great house. They had a happy and an 
easy time, if we may fust a humorous sketch in a 
newspaper of later date : 

"At Oak Hill, John Livingston resided, and owned a 
whole flock of negroes, the fattest, and the laziest, 
and the sauciest set of darkies that ever lay in the sun- 
shine. They worked little and ate much, and when- 
ever there was a horse-race or a pig-shave at the 
'Stauchy' ((Staatje), the negroes must have the 
horses, even if the master should be obliged to go 
about his business on foot. When they visited Cats- 
kill in tasseled boots and ruffled shirts, they were sure 
to create a sensation, and it was not unusual for the 
'poor whites' to sigh for the sumptuous happiness of 
John Livingston's slaves." 

Washington Irving gives a graphic account of a 

visit to one of the Livingston Manor Houses in a let- 

261 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

ter written in the early part of 1812 to his friend Henry 
Brevoort : 

"From the Captain's I proceeded to the country seat 
of John R. Livingston where I remained for a week, 
in complete fairy-land. His seat is spacious and ele- 
gant, with fine grounds around it, and the neighbor- 
hood is very gay and hospitable. I dined twice at the 
Chancellor's, and once at old Mrs. Montgomery's. Our 
own household was numerous and charming. In ad- 
dition to the ladies of the family, there were Miss Mc- 
Evers and Miss Haywood. Had you but seen me, hap- 
py rogue, up to my ears in 'an ocean of peacock feath- 
ers/ or rather 'like a strawberry smothered in cream !' 
The mode of living at the Manor is exactly after my 
own heart." 

"You have every variety of rural amusement within 
your reach, and are left to yourself to occupy your time 
as you please. We made several charming excursions, 
and you may suppose how delightful they were, 
through such beautiful scenery, with such fine women 
to accompany you. They surpassed even our Sunday 
morning rambles among the groves on the banks of 

the Hudson, when you and the divine H were so 

tender and sentimental, and you displayed your horse- 
manship so gallantly by leaping over a three-barred 
gate." 

The "Widow Mary"' or "Lady Mary Livingston," 

both of which titles belonged to her, was a marked 

personality in the Manor life of the early years of the 

262 




CHANCELLOR LIVINGSTON'S HOME 
This house was burned durinji: the war. and rebuilt at a later date. 




JUDGE ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON'S HOME 

One of the Livinsrston Manor Hou.ses which wa.s burne<l durint^ the war. 

and rebuilt by "brave Martrarel Beckman." the .ludRe's widow. 



MANOR JUNKETINGS. 



nineteenth century. She had been a Miss Allen of Al- 
lentown when she married Henry W. Livingston, 
whom she survived forty-five years. Like Margaret 
Beekman of Revolutionary fame, and Catherine Schuy- 
ler, she built a mansion upon a commanding eminence, 
whose substantial elegance, has withstood the march 
of time, and whose beauty has never been excelled in 
any of the Manor Houses. 

The "Widow Mary" Livingston was a woman of 
strong character who conducted her vast estate, brought 
up her family, built houses for her sons, and entertained 
widely and hospitably, as did all the Livingston wives 
before her. An old lady of Claverack who made her 
an afternoon call as a child, never forgot the grandeur 
of the great hall, the dignified "Lady Mary," with her 
high Swiss cap, which she was in the habit of carry- 
ing from place to place in a basket when traveling, the 
dark-faced butler in swallow-tails, with his mammoth 
silver tray, which he lowered hospitably before the 
child and her father, ofifering them cake and wine at 
his mistress' command. 

The "Widow Mary" loved a garden, and from some 



263 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

far-away place imported the snap-dragon of our fields 
to-day. In neighborly kindness she presented a 
portion of her yellow-blossoming plant to the wife 
of Colonel Henry I. Van Rensselaer at the Stone 
Mills, and the hardy little flower showing wild in- 
stincts when planted in a box-bordered flower-bed, 
wandered all over the Livingston and Van Rensselaer 
Manors, and crept through all the Manor fences into 
the farm-yards and fields, till the "Widow Mary's" gold- 
en blossom is one of the best known wild flowers of 
Columbia County to-day. 

It was this same neighbor, Colonel Henry I. Van 
Rensselaer, who aspired to have the first buggy in 
this part of the country, so placed his wood in the 
mill-pond to season for a year, at the end of which 
time the buggy was constructed, and presumably had 
the same durable qualities as the "wonderful one- 
horse shay" of New England fame. 

Four Henry W. Livingstons have descended in a 
straight line from the first Henry W. Livingston, the 
husband of "Lady Mary." At the death of one of them 
in the long ago, a whole ox was roasted to entertain 
the great gathering of people who attended the funer- 

264 



MANOR JUNKETINGS. 



al. These were also the days when the minister and 
pall-bearers attended funerals clad in long pleated 
scarfs of white linen, fastened with black rosettes, 
and wearing black gloves. 

To the first fifty years of the Republic belonged 
Robert, the last Lord of Livingston Manor ; his broth- 
er, Peter Van Brugh, a merchant of New York, and 
active in the Provincial Congress; John, also a mer- 
chant of New York; Philip, the "Signer;" Henry; 
William, Governor of New Jersey, and father of 
Brockholst Livingston, Judge of the State Supreme 
Court, and Assistant Justice of the United States 
Court; Sarah, wife of Major-General Alexander, Earl 
of Stirling; Alida (Mrs. Martin HofiFman) ; Catherine 
(Mrs. John L Lawrence). 

Of the children of the last Lord Robert who belong to 
this same period, was Peter R. Livingston, who was 
President of the Convention of the State of New 
York in 1776; Chairman of the New York Committee 
of Safety; Colonel of the loth Regiment from Albany 
County in 1775, but was detained from leading his 
men to the field by his duties to the State at that 
time, his younger brother, Henry, leading the Regi- 

265 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

ment as Lieutenant-Colonel. Peter R. began to build 
before the war, what he had intended to be his 
grand Manor House. The Revolution doing away 
with the entail brought his hopes to an end, and the 
house, with its solid foundation was never finished, 
simply a roof being placed over the first story. It has 
ever since gone under the name of the "Hermitage." 
At a later date Peter R. Livingston held the office of 
Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Columbia 
County. 

Walter Livingston, the second son of the last Lord 
of the Manor, was a member of the Provincial Con- 
gress, and first custodian of the United States Treas- 
ury. His home was at "Teviotdale," which later came 
to be called "Fulton House," after the marriage of 
Walter's daughter Harriet to Robert Fulton, and 
their residence in this beautiful country hoiiie during 
many of the summers of their early married life. Rob- 
ert C. was a merchant of New York and Jamaica, "C." 
standing for Cambridge University, where he was ed- 
ucated, and to distinguish him from the many other 
Roberts. John, for whom Johnstown was named, 



266 



MANOR JUNKETINGS. 



and who built Oak Hill, and General Harry, of Revo- 
lutionary fame, completed the sons, to whom were 
added Maria, who married Judge James Duane ; Alida, 
the wife of Valentine Gardner, and Mrs. John Patter- 
son. 

The life of Livingston Manor a century ago belongs 
to the picturesque past, when great political service 
and large land and mercantile enterprises were com- 
bined with a home life, whose junketings and visit- 
ings, "water-picnics" and sloop journeys, and coach- 
ing parties, ended around the festal board of some 
Lord of the Manor, whose hospitality was as far-fam- 
ed as were the beauty and grace of the Lady of the 
Manor, and the hearty welcome of his sons and 
dausfhters. 



267 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 
CHANCELLOR LIVINGSTON. 

While Claverack's nearest neighbor, the town of 
Hudson, was progressing so rapidly, the quiet Dutch 
village and country-side were not forgetting their old- 
er neighbors and friends in Livingston and Clermont. 

Chancellor Livingston's residence held a prominent 
place among the important homes of the upper Hud- 
son. He had married a daughter of that John Stevens 
who owned the most of the site of Hoboken, and who 
was also a sister of the second John Stevens, the build- 
er of the first ocean-going steamer. Her charming 
presence in the home added to the luster and renown 
of its hospitalities. 

Each step of the Chancellor's advance had been 
watched with interest, from his selection as the Sec- 
retary of Foreign Affairs, to the appointment of Chan- 
cellor of the State of New York, and when the State 

268 



CHANCELLOR LIVINGSTON. 



Convention met at the old Van Kleeck house at 
Poughkeepsie to consider the Constitution, with the 
Chancellor, Philip Livingston, Hamilton, Jay, and 
Philip Schuyler among its warmest advocates, no sec- 
tion of the State was more alive to its outcome, than 
that along Chancellor Livingston's own stretch of the 
river, on the east side of the Hudson. 

During the six weeks in which the debates continued, 
the subject was equally, if not as learnedly discussed 
through the country-side, and at last, when it was 
known that New York had unconditionally ratified 
the Constitution, the friends of its advocates, both 
personal and political, in Claverack, Livingston and 
Clermont, were jubilant, and the publication in the 
newspapers of the Constitution of the United States 
in full, found most earnest and interested readers in 
the men of the upper Hudson. 

At the Lower Manor of Claverack, there was a 
double reason for rejoicing. Part of the Constitution 
had been drafted by Alexander Hamilton in one of 
the rooms of General Schuyler's house at Albany. As 
in other cases, it was a family as well as a State affair. 



269 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

and on the evening of the announcement of the ratifi- 
cation, the Schuyler mansion was brilliantly illuminat- 
ed in celebration of the great Federal victory. 

In 1801 Chancellor Livingston was appointed, by 
President Jefferson, as ambassador to the Court of 
France during the First Napoleon's reign, and his ne- 
gotiations for the purchase of Louisiana, the success- 
ful conclusion of which doubled the extent of the coun- 
try, giving the United States the whole valley of the 
Mississippi, the Rocky Mountains, the great plains, 
and a large stretch of the Pacific slopes, could not but 
excite intense interest in his fellow countrymen. 

He returned from his stay in France to enter hearti- 
ly, with Robert Fulton, into the plans for the first 
steamboat, proving himself an ideal friend, as well as 
an able coadjutor in the great project. In the absence 
of public encouragement in their venture, Fulton and 
Livingston found in each other a mutual inspiration, 
which carried them on a wave of courage and hope 
toward their great final achievement. 

Though prominent in so many events of national 
importance, the Chancellor's interest in country life. 



270 



CHANCELLOR LIVINGSTON. 



its possibilities and improvements, gave his estate at 
Clermont a warm place in his regard, and his opin- 
ions in agricultural matters a value with the farmers 
of the section. He was keenly alive to all of nature's 
blessings, delighted in producing rare varieties of 
fruit, and was instrumental in introducing the 
race of Merino sheep into the United States. He 
himself owned at one time a flock of one thousand 
sheep of this breed, and a neighbor of his, Beriah 
Pease, who kept a flock on the "Fonda Hill Farm," 
gave the name, "Mount Merino," to the sightly ele- 
vation at the south of the city of Hudson. 

His own home at Clermont was eloquent of the Chan- 
cellor's love of nature and the charms of a country life. 
The spacious mansion which he built a little south of 
the one which was burned during the war of the Revo- 
lution, had a river front of over one hundred feet and 
was almost as deep, built in the form of the letter H. 
In one of its wings the Chancellor is said to have had 
a fine library of over four thousand volumes, and the 
house itself was furnished with beautiful tapestry and 
furniture specially imported from France by its own- 



271 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS 

er. The silver service was also among the most mag- 
nificent of its time. Outside of the house were wide- 
sweeping lawns on three sides, skirted by the virgin 
forests, and the beguiling water-view of the Hudson 
river and Catskill mountains. 

There were long planted avenues of favorite trees, 
favorable to a study of the Chancellor's views on the 
subject of tree-culture, and offering his guests enticing 
walks in the early dew-crowned morning, and the hours 
of sunset, or the witching hours of moonlight. These 
vistas of tree-planted avenues could tell stories of 
lengthy discussions of a political nature, between 
statesmen who found at the Chancellor's home a place 
of relaxation from the strain of the jarring world, or 
of younger people who met there at house parties, 
and found the dignity and charm of their surround- 
ings conducive to the play of fancy, and the growth 
of sentiment. This house of history and story, with 
its past associations, is still standing on the banks oi 
the Hudson, one of the old landmarks of the Manor 
days. 

So courtly were the Chancellor's manners, so up- 

272 



CHANCELLOR LIVINGSTON. 



right his integrity, so full of honor the acts of his 
public and private life, it is not strange that his pres- 
ence at Clermont was most highly esteemed. A stu- 
dent of men and of books, a man keenly interested in 
scientific pursuits, his life was a broad one, carrying 
through all its manifold activities a strong faith in 
God, as the guide and director of the lives of men. 

Under Chancellor Livingston's name and the date 
of birth in the family Bible, one reads the prayer, 
"The Lord bless and be with him. Amen." 

His friendships were strong, one of the closest being 
that with John Jay, who was his law partner for a 
short time in his early life. The correspondence of 
the two great men is among the gems of literature. 

The Chancellor often ended his letters to his friends 
with "God bless you," as his ultimate wish for their 
well-being. When he died in^i8i5 the grief along the 
Clover-reach of the Hudson helH a peculiar quality, 
in which respect and proprietorship, pride and affec- 
tion, were equally mingled. i 



273 



CHAPTER XXIX. 
EARLY RESIDENTS OF CLAVERACK. 

The perpetual leases given by the Van Rensselaers 
of the Lower Manor were considered equivalent to a 
sale, and brought to Claverack a class of men whose 
distinction gave the town a reputation beyond that of 
the settlements of the neighboring Manors, and whose 
family residences compared favorably with the Manor 
Houses. 

William Henry Ludlow came to Claverack from 
New York some years before the War, and opened a 
grain store. As the raising and selling of crops was 
the business of farms for miles around, and Claverack 
was the place of exchange between the country and 
the " Landing," this business was of great importance. 
All traces of this first grain depot have passed away, 
but the fine colonial mansion which Mr. Ludlow built 
in 1786 still stands, and hanging upon its walls are the 
portraits of many of the early settlers of Claverack, 

274 



0. fM^ 






Z = 

< 3 



II 

Q £ 
=) .2 
_l = 






■#• 



EARLY RESIDENTS OF CLAVERACK. 

and the branch of the Livingston family with which 
they intermarried, for back and forth between these 
two great estates came the sons and grandsons of the 
Lords of the Manors, seeking wives among the daugh- 
ters of those who had bought farms, and built homes 
in this section of the country. 

The first owner of the Ludlow mansion and his wife 
with their high-bred faces, the merchant of that day in 
ruffled shirt and with lace dropping over his hands, 
look across the room into the faces of Robert Morris, 
the son of Chief Justice Richard Morris of "Bob Hill" 
fame, a prominent man of his day, and his wife, a sweet 
old lady in dotted-net cap, with kerchief and lace 
shawl below, and the tapering fingers of her time. The 
two families intermarried after the War, and later 
again with the family of Robert Fulton, whose portrait 
by Benjamin West holds an honored place among the 
rest ; and all these pictures of the Claverack families 
of the past show gentle blood and courtly bearing. 

Most of these earlier families built a second house, 
which is the one which stands to-day. This was the 
case with the Millers who descended from Cornelius 
Stephense Muldor who bought his thousand acres 

275 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

from the first proprietor of the Lower Manor. This 
family sent its branches into as many important posi- 
tions in life as its acres were broad. The old Race 
homestead in Claverack occupies a portion of the old 
Miller estate. Here Court Martials were held during 
the Revolution. Cornelius S. Miller was a member of 
the Vigilance Committee, appointed to arrest Tories 
who were often confined in the cellar of his house, as 
were also delinquents of the Claverack regiment under 
the command of Colonel Robert Van Rensselaer. 
Killian Miller was Member of Congress and Coun- 
ty Clerk, Stephen was a Presidential Elector and Mem- 
ber of Assembly, Hon. John I. Miller was Judge of the 
Court of Common Pleas in 1808 and Senator in 1821- 
22. They held military commissions, and were promi- 
nent in political life, both at that time and in later 
years. " On one occasion according to the late Joseph 
D. Monell, after a sharp political contest in which Cor- 
nelius S. Miller was successful, the young men of the 
town attached ropes to his gig and drew him home in 
triumph, Mr. Monell participating." 

This branch of the Miller family continued to use 
Dutch in its family intercourse long after English was 

276 



EARLY RESIDENTS OF CLAVERACK. 



in common use, which would lead us to infer that they 
were among- those lovers of the tongue of the home- 
land, who stipulated that the " Dutch call should re- 
main unaltered, integer, as it stood," when an English 
colleague was called to assist Dominie Gebhard. 

Stephen Miller of this family, carried on a store of 
similar importance to that of Mr. Ludlow from 1790- 
1834 known as the " old store " which was said to have 
been " a central point of trade and barter, where the 
farmers for miles around gathered to obtain their sup- 
plies." Previous to the time of railroads, transporta- 
tion was carried on by wagons and sloops, and the 
country roads were never quiet or untraveled even in 
unpleasant weather. A store-keeper of Hudson, who 
was interested in this traveling wagon-trade, tells in 
his journal written in 1816 of a ride to Austerlitz, a 
distance of twenty miles, on which trip he counted 
seventy-two farmers going, and seventy-six returning. 
A country-store on the road to the "Landing" held an 
important place in those days. 

Killian Hogeboom emigrated from Holland, bring- 
ing an infant son Jeremiah with him, soon after Hen- 
drick Van Rensselaer came into possession of the Low- 

277 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

er Manor. His son Johannes was born in Claverack, 
and was the father of eleven children. There seems 
to have been room for any number of children to grow 
and prosper on the Claverack farms, some of the Clav- 
erack families numbering among their relatives one 
hundred own cousins. Cornelius Hogeboom, one of 
Columbia County's first Sheriffs, who was killed by 
the Anti-renters in 1791 was a son of Johannes. Judge 
John C. Hogeboom his grandson, was said by his con- 
temporaries in political life to have been "one of na- 
ture's great men," who, while rendering marked polit- 
ical service to his State, won the respect and admira- 
tion of both friends and opponents. 

Jeremiah Hogeboom was prominent in public life, 
as was also Stephen, his son, who was often Member 
of the Assembly and of the Constitutional Convention 
in 1801, also serving as State Senator. One of his 
daughters married General Samuel B. Webb who 
came to Claverack to reside after the Revolutionary 
War. General Webb had a most distinguished mili- 
tary career. "Hearing of the battle of Lexington he 
went to Boston in command of a company of light in- 
fantry, was engaged and wounded at Bunker Hill, 

278 



EARLY RESIDENTS OF CLAVERACK. 

was subsequently aide to Gen. Putnam, and private 
secretary and aide-de-camp to General Washington. 
He was engaged in the battle of Long Island, wound- 
ed at White Plains and again at Trenton, and was in 
action at Brandywine. In 1777 he raised the third 
Connecticut regiment, which was captured by the 
British fleet. Colonel Webb was not exchanged till 
1780, when he took command of the light infantry, 
with the brevet rank of Brigadier-General." Soon 
after he made Claverack his place of residence, he 
made an important journey to New York. This was 
at the time of the Inauguration of George Washing- 
ton as President of the United States, upon which oc- 
casion he held the Bible upon which the President 
took the oath of office. 

General Webb lived in one of the houses built by 
the Hogebooms after an ancient Dutch model, about 
the year 1760. Here in 1802 the General's son James 
Watson Webb was born, and until the house was 
burned in 1890 it was considered one of Claverack's 
most interesting landmarks. While holding import- 
ant historical prominence, it possessed at a later day 
an interest forever connecting it with the glad Christ- 

279 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

mas season, for it was in one of its old fashioned 
rooms, that a descendant of the Hogebooms wrote 
that time-honored Christmas rhyme, "The Night Be- 
fore Christmas." The picture painted of the silent 
house, the broad chimney accommodated to the de- 
scent of St. Nicholas, and the sleeping children, all 
took place beneath its Dutch roof, and the prancing 
horses bringing "St. Nick" and his Christmas toys, were 
supposed to have been galloping over the gambrel 
roofs of Claverack. A ride with children at a later 
date always embraced the road past the Webb house 
and its Christmas story. 

The Esselstyns came from Holland in 1659, and 
Marten Cornelise Ysselsteyn was one of the fourteen 
original proprietors of Schenectady, but the charms 
of Claverack drew him away from his original pur- 
chase, and in 1668 he sold his farm for three hundred 
and thirty beaver skins, and ultimately settled in Clav- 
erack, where he leased a large tract of land, and to 
the seventh generation, Claverack still holds his de- 
scendants residing on the ancestral estate. We have 
no record as to whether the "beaver skins" paid for 
the new purchase, but the change of residence from 

280 



EARLY RESIDENTS OF CLAVERACK. 

Schenectady to Claverack does not seem ever to have 
been regretted. Military honors were plentiful in 
this family. Richard E. was a Captain and a Major 
in the Continental army, while his son Jacob, follow- 
ing in his father's footsteps, went forth at fifteen to 
fight for his country, and was a Major in the war of 
1812. "The Esselstyns and Millers have at various 
times held nearly, if not all, the public offices in the 
county." 

The Van Nesses, than whom no family stood higher 
in social and political life in the first fifty years of the 
Republic, have been already mentioned in the fruitage 
of eminent men who gave renown to Washington 
Seminary. This family was one of the earliest of those 
who built their homes along the Kolderberg (Post- 
hill) ; and who gave to that beautiful thoroughfare the 
name of being a very aristocratic section of Claverack. 

The descendants of Samuel Ten Broeck, who mar- 
ried Maria Van Rensselaer, the eldest daughter of 
Hendrick, and who, with his wife, were the first to 
live in Hendrick Van Rensselaer's new Manor House, 
remained in Claverack to the third and fourth genera- 
tion, owning a tract of land now divided into four 

281 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

farms. Samuel Ten Broeck was one of the committee 
appointed to erect the first church in 1726. Adam Ten 
Broeck served seven years in the War, and William 
Ten Broeck of this family was one of the " voorlesers" 
of the old Dutch Church. 

Like Captain Conyn, Fitz Muzigh of Livingston 
was hung- up in his own cellar by the Tories, and was 
most fortunately rescued by a neighbor. His son 
Hendrick acquired "a tenth lease" of one William 
Snyder of Claverack, with the consent of Colonel Jo- 
hannes Van Rensselaer, agreeing to pay him "one- 
tenth of all the produce and four fat hens annually." 
Upon this farm he built a house in 1770. This house 
is still the property of his descendants, but the pur- 
chase in 1809 of the summer home of Hendrick Van 
Rensselaer, and their long residence there, has asso- 
ciated the Mesick name indelibly with this quaint 
old house, whose high ridge and sloping roof still re- 
main, though the gambrel roof of the Van Rensselaer 
Manor days at the back has undergone change. This 
family have also held military commissions and filled 
civil offices, the first Lieutenant's commission being 
signed by Cadwallader Colden in 1764. 

282 



EARLY RESIDENTS OF CLAVERACK. 

The Tobias Van Deusen house was built in 1742 
with gambrel roof, and its gable end to the road once 
bore the date 1742 in figures over a foot long. Tobias 
I St married a Scotch lady of Linlithgo, and his son 
James, a daughter of Robert Hathaway, one of the 
early settlers of Hudson, who was a ship owner who 
sent "ventures" to the West Indies. This couple 
seem to have been among the pioneers of the Dutch 
residents of Claverack who entered into marriage with 
the New Englanders of Hudson. 

Steadily in the early years after the "Proprietors" 
from Providence and Nantucket, bought land for a 
town from Peter Hogeboom and the Widow Hardick, 
one house after another was built by the Quakers on 
the turnpike road to Claverack. Equally as steadily 
Claverack poured her citizens into the new town of 
Hudson, till eventually there came to be the mixed 
Dutch and Quaker race which are residents of this 
section to-day. 

Time would fail to tell of the Rossmans and Hoff- 
mans, the Philips and Russells, the Delamaters and 
Le Roys, Leggetts and Schumakers and Flemings and 
many others who have wrought large deeds for the 

283 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

well-being of Claverack, and often for their native 
State as well. Are they not all written in the County 
and State records and in every history of Claverack? 

It is the women of these families who raised house- 
fuls of children, who saw their sons occupy positions 
of honor g-eneration after generation, and their 
daughters marry and repeat their mothers' lives, of 
whom it is difficult to find the records, yet these were 
a mighty factor in the life of Claverack. We read it 
best in the quaint household utensils that tell of their 
daily labors, in the work of their hands in quilts and 
spreads, woolen sheets and woven coverlids made by 
their industrious fingers, by the beautiful embroider- 
ies of dress and furniture, the samplers with their vir- 
tuous rhymes, and the more impressive picture sam- 
plers, whose subjects were wont to be of tomb-stones 
and weeping willows, and wooden-armed mourners, 
hiding wooden features through the handkerchiefs 
held before their eyes. 

Occasionally there are favorite books to be found, 
very grave treatises on manners and personal piety, 
with a pressed leaf or flower between the leaves, or a 
worked card-board book-mark of as serious a design 

284 



EARLY RESIDENTS OF CLAVERACK. 

as the samplers. 

There are tender family stories laid away as it were 
in lavender, by some lover of her ancestors ; or some 
ludicrous incident of the long ago held fast in a humor- 
ous memory. Sometimes one hears of a merry group of 
girls, the village beauties, and how many proposals 
they each boasted, giving their descendants the im- 
pression that proposals of marriage were as common 
and constant as the gentleman's attentions to his lady, 
and that the chosen wUt at last, had she known, must 
have felt like the end belle of a long line. 

After all this, — from which we picture the woman 
of the past, — there are still occasional portraits so 
charming and characteristic, that one may read be- 
tween the lines, and see the haughty dame whose head 
was carried high, the gentle matron whose heart is 
shown in her face, the sunshiny eyes and humorous 
curves to the lips in another frame, the serene faces 
of the women who were mothers at sixteen, the sad 
and tiie glad, — and we gain a fresh insight into the 
personalities of our fore-mothers. 

Thus we come to know the women of yesterday, 
who are in no records, yet who graced the homes of 

285 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

Claverack and of other colonial towns, who visited 
each other, rejoicing and weeping with their friends in 
turn, who filled their days with earnest labors, who 
walked the village streets, and were driven over 
the roads, and tripped across lots as their descendants 
do to-day, pleased with the first wild flowers, tending 
their gardens, planting tiny trees that now shade us 
from the heat of the summer sun, watching the glisten- 
ing icicles that hung to the pine-needles, and the snow 
drifts that blocked the road and hid the fences, own- 
ing and loving the world they lived in, and their hus- 
bands and children in that time of long ago. 

Through this Claverack world of men and women 
and children. Dominie Gebhard walked for fifty years, 
social and vivacious, but always dignified and courte- 
ous, his personal amiability making him a peacemaker 
in the congregation, and as a pastor a most welcome 
visitor, carrying with him to his outskirting churches 
a genial fellowship as well as a clerical blessing. One 
of the descendants of these families of the past has 
said of him, "For nearly half a century he filled a 
large place, albeit a man of small statue, in the relig- 
ious, social, and educational life of Claverack. His 

286 



EARLY RESIDENTS OF CLAVERACK. 

memory is a shrine at which even the descendants of 
those who lived under his ministry never cease to 
worship." 



287 



CHAPTER XXX. 

MONTGOMERY, LAFAYETTE, AND THE 
ERIE CANAL. 

A dramatic event took place on the Hudson during 
the summer of 1818. For forty years the body of the 
brave General Montgomery had lain in Canadian soil. 
Janet Livingston Montgomery had only been allowed 
three years of happy married life with her soldier hus- 
band. Her years of bereavement had been many. 
When the request was made for her, to the Governor- 
in-Chief of Canada, Sir John Sherbrooke, that General 
Montgomery's remains be removed to New York, it 
was courteously granted. 

An act had been passed in a recent session of the 
Legislature of New York, recommending that a com- 
mission be sent to Quebec on this important errand, 
and Governor DeWitt Clinton appointed Lewis Liv- 
ingston, a son of Edward Livingston, to receive the 
remains and direct the formalities incident to the re- 

288 



MONTGOMERY, LAFAYETTE, ETC. 

moval. On July Fourth a military escort under the 
Adjutant-General and Colonel Van Rensselaer accom- 
panied the body from Whitehall to Albany where 
there were impressive ceremonies. After resting in 
state in the Capitol over Sunday, the body was taken 
down river in the steamboat Richmond, the following 
day. The greatest respect was paid the passing boat 
by the citizens of the towns along the river, in many 
places minute guns breaking the silence. There were 
old soldiers and ofificers of the Revolutionary war still 
living, and many a tear-dimmed eye and lifted hat, 
watched the silent movements of this unique funeral 
bier, which brought the brave General back to his own 
after nearly half a century. 

The Governor had acquainted Mrs Montgomery of 
the hour in which the Richmond would pass Mont- 
gomery Place. Alone she waited on the verandah in 
front of her house as the hour approached. Since the 
good-bye spoken at General Schuyler's house at Sara- 
toga, she had lived half a lifetime, always cherishing 
the memory of "her soldier," made doubly precious 
through the early tragic parting. As the wheels 
ceased to move, and the boat stopped in front of Mont- 

289 
20 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

gomery Place, over the water came the muffled music 
of the "Dead March," played by the band on board. 
A salute was fired and the Richmond proceeded on its 
way, leaving behind the grey-haired woman who had 
given her all for her country, and could still say, as 
she had written from Ireland some years earlier, 
where she was visiting General Montgomery's family, 
"When I return home I hope to find my dear country 
for which I have bled, the envy of her enemies and the 
glory of her patriots." The events of this July day 
were the crown of her great sacrifice and grief of 
years, and the glory of a country whose army had 
held such a soldier as General Montgomery. 

General Montgomery's monument in front of St. 
Paul's chapel, New York, bears this inscription— 

"This monument is erected by order of Congress, 
January 25th, 1776, to transmit to posterity a grateful 
remembrance of the patriotism, conduct, enterprise, 
and perseverance of General Richard Montgomery, 
who, after a series of successes in the midst of the 
most discouraging difficulties, fell in the attack on 
Quebec, 31st December, 1775." 

After the removal of Governor Montgomery's body 

290 



MONTGOMERY, LAFAYETTE, ETC. 

the following- inscription was added — 

"The State of New York caused the remains of Ma- 
jor-General Montgomery to be conveyed from Quebec 
and deposited beneath this monument the 8th of July, 
1818." 

The War of the Revolution was still leaving its af- 
termath in many ways, and it was not all sorrowful. 

Hudson is said to have been one of the first cities 
in the Union, which sent a committee of invitation to 
Lafayette in New York, on his last visit to America, 
offering the hospitalities of the town. 

In September 1824, he embarked on the steamer 
James Kent, commanded by Captain Samuel Wiswall, 
the "Commodore," to make a tour of the Hudson, 
stopping along the way to meet old friends and to ac- 
cept invitations which had been tendered him. He 
spent a morning with General Morgan Lewis and his 
wnfe, Gertrude Livingston, at Staatsburg, and after 
leaving their hospitable home, asked for his old 
friend Colonel Harry Livingston. A little later the 
steamer stopped at Kingston Point, and Colonel Liv- 
ingston, who had crossed the river in a row boat, 
came aboard. Lafayette's joy at the meeting was un- 

291 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

mistakable. The two old friends rushed into each oth- 
er's arms, giving one another a hearty kiss in true 
French fashion, to the surprise of the Americans 
aboard. Their close association in army experiences 
had made a tie of warm comradeship between them, 
not easily forgotten through the intervening years. 

Chancellor Livingston's two daughters lived at this 
time in the Livingston homes at Clermont. The eld- 
est had married Edward P. Livingston, a grandson 
of the Signer of the Declaration of Independence. He 
had been private secretary to Chancellor Livingston 
during the latter portion of his ministry to France, 
and at this time lived in the older of the two Manor 
Houses, the one rebuilt by Margaret Beekman, widow 
of Judge Robert R. Livingston, during the Revolu- 
tion. In the Chancellor's home lived Robert L. Liv- 
ingston who had married the younger daughter. 

Upon the arrival of the James Kent at Clermont, 
with General Lafayette on board as the guest of hon- 
or, word was sent to the city of Hudson, when a 
"committee of citizens consisting of Rufus Reed Esq., 
Mayor Dr. John Tallman, and Colonel Strong, accom- 
panied by two military companies, the Hudson Brass 

293 



MONTGOMERY, LAFAYETTE, ETC. 

Band, General Jacob R. Van Rensselaer and suite, 
and Brig.-General James Flemming and suite, pro- 
ceeded upon the steamboat Richmond, Captain Wil- 
liam J. Wiswall, to meet Lafayette at Clermont, and 
escort him to Hudson." 

The reception given Lafayette at Clermont was a most 
brilliant social event. The lawn of the Chancellor's old 
home was beautifully illuminated, and for half a mile 
crowded with guests, while the water in front was 
dotted white with vessels bringing guests from the 
towns in the vicinity. The cups, plates, ladies' gloves, 
and slippers, bore the likeness of Lafayette. It was 
a distinguished gathering, including among its num- 
bers many of the most prominent citizens of the State. 
Lafayette reached Hudson on the following day, 
and it is said, "met with a reception the most heartfelt 
and joyous ever bestowed on man." The procession 
through the streets was a notable one. As it stopped 
a moment before Mayor Tallman's residence (now 
the Graceland) his little boy, a very beautiful child, 
ran to the carriage to see Lafayette. The General 
was so pleased with the bright face of the little fellow, 
that he lifted him into the carriage with him, and the 

293 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

child reached the acme of boyish aspiration, as he 
rode through the streets of the town under the arches, 
and between the cheering lines of people, seated be- 
side the visiting General. 

The carriage in which Lafayette rode was drawn by 
four black horses, and attended by four grooms in 
hvery. Following was a lengthy procession of mili- 
tary organizations and citizens of Hudson and Claver- 
ack, and other near-by places. The streets were crowd- 
ed with people, all anxious to gain at least one look at 
the man America delighted to honor. The procession 
passed on its way through arches of evergreens, bear- 
ing inscriptions of welcome to America's friend, bow- 
ing cordially to the hosts which lined the thoroughfare 
on either side. At the head of the street surmounting 
one of the arches stood a colossal figure of the God- 
dess of Liberty, bearing the stars and stripes in her 
hand. 

At the Court House Lafayette was received by the 
ladies of the town, and welcomed by the Mayor, to 
whom he responded in a brief speech. Here he met 
sixty-eight veterans of the Revolution and had a kind- 
ly word for each. It had been expected that he would 

294 



MONTGOMERY. LAFAYETTE, ETC. 

dine in Hudson, but the beautiful and elaborate deco- 
rations of Allen's tavern, and the sumptuous feast 
provided, were a lost labor of love, since the delays of 
the journey made it necessary that the guest of the 
day should leave without partaking of the banquet. 
He did alight, however, at this point, and admire the 
efforts made in his behalf, which included a wreath 
suspended over the chair designed for him, and con- 
tained an appropriate poetical welcome. After partak- 
ing of some light refreshment, he bade the multitude 
farewell, and embarked for Albany. 

The beautiful water-way of the Hudson was the 
medium of transmitting the great public events of the 
day in this quarter of the world. One other spectacle 
of momentous import occurred the following year. 
Governor Clinton's dream and ambition had been to 
cut a canal through New York State, and thus unite 
the Great Lakes and the Hudson. Clinton met with 
similar experiences to those of Robert Fulton in his 
great project, and his political antagonists called his 
design, "The Big Ditch," and ridiculed his scheme, 
hampering him at every step. However, during at 
least a part of the long waiting time, he had the en- 

295 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

couragement of Gouverneur Morris and Robert Ful- 
ton on his committee, able coadjutors and courageous 
friends. 

After fifteen years of hard work, and many discour- 
agements, on October 26th, 1825, the canal, which was 
four hundred and forty miles in length, was finished, 
and everything was in readiness to let the waters of 
Lake Erie into the channel. There being no telegraph, 
the news was carried to distant points by means of a 
chain of cannon placed all along the route, to give no- 
tice of the event. The first gun was fired at ten 
o'clock ; at eleven Albany rang out her salute of 
joy, and from then on all the way down the Hudson, 
the flashes told the story. It is easy to imagine the 
interest of the crowd on Round Top Hill at Hudson 
that October morning, and the villagers and farmers 
of Claverack were said to have gathered in large num- 
bers at the Landing. At eleven o'clock and twenty- 
one minutes, New York city heard the glad tidings. 

Nor were the fire-flash messages all. Four canal 
boats, with the Seneca Chief in the lead, followed, hav- 
ing started from Buffalo with a distinguished com- 
pany on board. The canal boats did not travel as 

296 



MONTGOMERY, LAFAYETTE, ETC. 

quickly as the flashes, but their progress was triumph- 
ant. People gathered at every available place along 
the route to welcome the little fleet. Some of the citi- 
zens of that day thought the whole State had turned 
out to rejoice. There was a special celebration at Al- 
bany, where Ambrose Spencer, formerly of Claverack, 
was then Mayor. Sloops and steamboats saluted the 
whole length of the river, in which ovation the whis- 
tles and flags of the Hudson boats joined most heart- 
ily. 

When the four canal boats reached New York, 
tliere were great processions on water and land. The 
boats moved down the bay beyond Sandy Hook amid 
greetings from the Forts, and here Governor Clinton 
lifted aloft a keg of Lake Erie water, and poured it 
into the ocean, thus mingling the two waters. The 
completion of the Erie Canal opened up a vast area in 
the central and western part of the State, paving the 
way to great cities, and increased commercial prosper- 
ity, almost past computation in its beneficial effects. 



297 



CHAPTER XXXI. 
SHADOWS ACROSS THE SUNSHINE. 

The later years in the Claverack parsonage held 
both tragedy and romance. Annamaria, the last of 
the Dominie's children, was little older than the 
grandchildren who had come to make the parsonage 
their home. The charm of her fair young womanhood 
appealed greatly to her nephews and nieces, and they 
seem to have looked upon her with wide-eyed admira- 
tion. Her engagement in her seventeenth year to 
John Bay, a rising young lawyer of the village, wove 
around her a romantic interest in the eyes of the 
younger members of the family. 

When she started one fair spring day for Hudson, 
to buy her wedding dress, with the consciousness that 
her wealth for the purpose lay in a veritable gold piece 
safely stowed away until she had reached her destina- 
tion, it is probable that the fancies of the young, which 
in the spring time "lightly turn to thoughts of love," 

298 



SHADOWS ACROSS THE SUNSHINE. 

were hers in a large measure, and that they wove 
threads of gold through the dreams of flowered silks 
and silvery satins, which formed the goal toward 
which she traveled. Already she could see the sales- 
men in the shops of Hudson, gathering- breadths of 
silk in their hands, as they threw out the folds of soft 
sheeny material, descanting on the relative beauty and 
merit, of trailing green vines or rose-bud figures, 
while Annamaria told herself that there never had 
Ijeen such a beauty before, as she would select for her 
wedding gown. 

The birds sang love-songs among tiie blossoms, or 
built new nests in the tree tops, wind flowers along 
the roadside bent their delicate heads to the gentle 
t)reezes, and the slender green branches of the willows 
mirrored themselves in the clear waters of Claverack 
Creek. Everything in nature spoke of renewal in the 
spring of 1816, but no part of it all exceeded the joy 
that sang its own song in the young girl's heart as she 
drove to Hudson to buy her wedding dress. 

Where or how it happened no one knows to-day, or 
who in the long after time, found a tiny gold mine in 
some clump of cow-slips, or just under the edge of 

299 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

some sheltering rock, or among the pebbles in the 
purling brook beside the road, but Annamaria lost her 
gold piece that fair spring day, and the wedding dress 
waiting for her, was never cut from the piece. 

Her grief came down in the annals of the boy who 
helped build the church steeple, and the deep pity of 
his childish heart, led him to his grandfather to plead 
that his Aunt Annamaria be given another gold piece 
for the wedding dress. That gold pieces of consider- 
able value were not plentiful in a country parsonage, 
where the fatherless and motherless were also being 
cared for, was not discernible to the child, only the 
sad look of the old man as he gently said, "Go away, 
child. Go away, child," remained in his memory. 

Whether the mother's Philadelphia wedding dress 
of long ago, with its soft satin stripes, and hair lines 
of green on the corn-colored background, was substi- 
tuted for the gown that was to have been chosen by 
the young bride herself, or whether the disappoint- 
ment brought on a decline, history is silent, but be- 
fore the next springtime had brought birds and flow- 
ers and apple blossoms, Annamaria had died of "a 



300 



SHADOWS ACROSS THE SUNSHINE. 

consumption," aged seventeen years and seven 
months. 

In the days when the joys of earth v^ere sHpping 
away, she copied in her own hand and signed with her 
own initials, in the family Bible, that record book of 
vital events of the past, "The Bride's Farewell," a 
tender and touching good-bye to the loved members 
of her family. In the rhythmical measures, we are 
led to believe it was originally intended as a farewell 
to her girlhood's home from a bride about to leave it 
for the home of her husband, but it was at this time 
used as a last farewell. In such lines as — 

"I in gems and roses gleaming. 
On the eternal sunshine dreaming. 
Scarce this sad farewell may speak." 

the poetess, all unconsciously, had inserted lines of 
double meaning, fitting them to this unforeseen use. 



301 



CHAPTER XXXII. 
THE CROWN OF LIFE. 

It is a significant fact that in 1799 in the zenith of 
his labors and influence, there had come to Dominie 
Gebhard the "Proclamation of the President of the 
United States, John Adams, calling for 'a day of fast- 
ing, humiliation and prayer,' " while in the closing 
months of his ministr}^, October i8th, 1825, Governor 
Clinton issued his first proclamation for the observ- 
ance of a public thanksgiving. The fullness of days 
and of labors called for thankfvilness both in church 
and State. 

In April 1825, the original large parish over which 
Dominie Gebhard had presided, was reduced still 
further in size by the withdrawal of the Hillsdale 
church, to which Claverack agreed. A few days later 
the old Dominie passed in his resignation as the sen- 
ior-pastor of the church, and the Dutch call which had 

302 



THE CROWN OF LIFE. 



"remained unaltered, integer, as it stood" for nearly 
fifty years became null and void. 

The years were sapping the strength of the intrepid 
Dominie of the past, yet the letter to the Classis of 
Rensselaer asking to be relieved of his charge on ac- 
count of advancing age and infirmities, rang also with 
a touch of the old undaunted spirit in its closing sen- 
tences which asked "that he might still l)e Iield a 
member of the Classis of Rensselaer, and be permitted 
to preach occasionally when invited, or administer the 
Holy Sacrament when his strength would permit" 
and was signed, 

"Yours in the love of the Gospel, 

"J. G. GEBHARD." 

The last of the grandchildren to be born in the old 
parsonage, and to be baptized by the old Dominie in 
December, 1824, was Charles William Gebliard, M. D., 
the writer's father. Nine other children of the congre- 
gation received the rite of baptism at the old Domi- 
nie's hands the same year. In the year of his resig- 
nation he performed twenty marriages, and two in 
the last year of his life, for that the life of this godl} 
man was drawing to a close, was becoming apparent 

303 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

to his old parishioners. Preeminently a minister of 
the Sacraments, it is fitting that the last word that 
we have of an act of his on earth, should have been 
the administering of the Holy Communion. 

Dr. Currie, a child of the old church, writes, "I, 
who was kindly taken by the hand and encouraged by 
Mr. Gebhard when I resolved to devote myself to the 
work of the ministry, cannot forbear to revert to one 
scene in which that venerable servant of God was an 
actor, and which is vividly impressed on my mind. 

"It was the Sabbath, and the church had come to- 
gether to remember Christ in the 'ordinance of the 
Holy Supper.' Just before the elements were to be 
distributed, Mr. Gebhard came into the church, it is 
believed, for the last time. As he opened the door 
every eye was directed toward him. His gait was 
erect, but his countenance was wan. He took his 
seat in the front of the pulpit and at the right of the 
table. And as he sat there contemplating the scene 
before him, and doubtless anticipating with confidence 
and joy of heart the arrival of the moment, when he 
should be welcomed home to glory with the plaudit, 
'Well done, good and faithful servant,' the peace with- 

304 



THE CROWN OF LIFE. 



in was shadowed forth in the heavenly serenity 
which was depicted on his brow. 'He ate of the bread, 
and drank of the wine in remembrance of Christ.' He 
arose in his place amid a profound silence, and deliv- 
ered the last address which he ever made at the Com^ 
munion table, or to the church to which he had min- 
istered for more than half a century. 

"He spoke in the Dutch language, with earnestness, 
yet with deliberation, and in a manner such as became 
him, standing on the borders of eternity. He seemed 
like one from the other world, who had just ap- 
peared to deliver a message from God and return. 
And when I looked on him standing forth as the 'am- 
bassador of Christ,' and remembered how often he 
had said, 'I would rather wear out than rust out,' and 
saw the lamp of life then evidently flickering in the 
socket, I experienced sensations which for the time 
were overpowering, and cannot be described." 

On August i6th, 1826, this faithful servant of God 
passed to his reward. The church books recording his 
demise, add this resolution, "Resolved that the present 
minister and consistory of this church wear the usual 
badge of mourning on the left arm for eight weeks, 

305 

2\ 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

and that the pulpit be draped in mourning for six 
months." 

In the childhood of the author and compiler of 
these records, she often heard elderly people speak of 
having heard Dominie Gebhard preach, or his having 
married or baptized them or their ancestors, as a mat- 
ter of self-congratulation, an honor attained. Within 
the past year, two persons, one an old lady over nine- 
ty, another a granddaughter of a Quaker resident of 
Hudson, speaking for her grandmother, have made 
this same claim in the same manner, but with an ex- 
planatory sentence. "We heard old Dominie Gebhard 
preach in our girlhood. Of course we did not under- 
stand a word, but people went to hear him as they 
went to hear Beecher in later years." That, then, 
was the clew to this apparent attainment, but with a 
difference. Men went to hear Beecher that they might 
enjoy the brilliant thoughts of a mighty intellect. 
Men and women went to hear the Dutch Dominie of 
Claverack, that they might see and hear a man whose 
personality had dominated nearly a whole County, for 
over fifty years. 

30^ 



THE CROWN OF LIFE. 



The great work of his life may be read in the rec- 
ords of hundreds of family Bibles of Manors and farm 
houses, not only scattered through the old Claverack 
congregation and Columbia County, but carried to 
the large cities, and over the prairies to the far west, 
and into the sunny south, and with sailors across the 
sea. He pleaded for heavenly blessings in baptism over 
the heads of five thousand children save seventy-six, 
and solemnized nearly two thousand marriages. Besides 
this, hundreds were welcomed to the communion of 
the church. 

Who can tell how far Dominie Gebhard's influence 
counted in the making of this nation, in heavenly 
blessings called down by this minister of the Sacra- 
ments, and also in the educational advantages brought 
with him from an older country, and showered gener- 
ously on the infancy and youth of our new Republic! 
The closing note of such a life is a glad one, with its 
obituary written long ago : — 

"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of 
him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, 
that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth." 



307 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 
IN BLOSSOM TIME. 

"Thus it is our daughters leave us, 
Those we love, and those who love us! 
Just when they have learned to help us. 
When we are old and lean upon them. 
Comes a youth with flaunting feathers, 
With his flute of reeds, a stranger. 
Wanders, piping through the village, 
Beckons to the fairest maiden, 
And she follows where he leads her. 
Leaving all things for the stranger." 

Like a sunbeam slanting in at the half-closed door 
of the old parsonage, there appears one final scene 
connected with the old home, full of a romantic inter- 
est and youthful happiness. The Dominie's wife and 
daughter, and the grandchildren who composed the 
parsonage family, had moved into a house on the Kol- 
derberg with one of the old Dominie's sons, Dr. John 
G. Gebhard, and his Philadelphia wife, while they 
awaited the building of a new home near by, and the 

308 




MRS. RICHARD C. MORSE AND TWO OF HER CHILDREN 
After !i painting by Samui-l F. B. Morse. 



IN BLOSSOM TIME. 



Rev. Richard Sluyter, the English minister, occupied 
the parsonage. 

The following spring, Mr. Richard Morse, a son of 
Jedediah Morse of geography fame, was traveling 
through the country obtaining subscribers to the New 
York Observer, a religious weekly lately established 
in New York city. He bore letters of introduction to 
the clergy, and among them was one to the Rev. Rich- 
ard Sluyter with whom he stayed over a Sabbath. Be- 
ing a linguist himself and a book lover, he was attract- 
ed by a bookcase in Dominie Sluyter's parlor, contain- 
ing volumes in many languages. It proved to be 
Dominie Gebhard's library which had not yet been 
removed from the parsonage. Upon enquiry, he was 
told that the old Dominie's wife held the key, and 
would be very willing that he should examine the 
books. 

He lost no time in taking the walk over the Kolder- 
berg. It was just at sunset, and the beauty of the 
magnificent view which swept off to the Catskills, 
over fields and woods and orchards, sunk deep into 
the New Englander's soul. The Old-Man-of-the- 
Mountain was sinking to sleep beneath a pink coverHd 

309 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

of clouds, and for a wide half circle the sky was ablaze 
with a mass of brilliant colors. Thoughts of sun-set 
and spring-time were woven through the young man's 
thoughts, as he approached his destination. He found 
his host, the son of the old Dominie, upon the porch, 
enjoying the rest and quietness of the close of the day, 
and seating his guest in this pleasant out-door gath- 
ering place, the two men entered into a conversation 
of marked interest to both. Long ago Jedediah Morse 
had written in his geography, that "the Dutch were an 
honest, industrious, and enterprising people," and his 
son was very willing to make their acquaintance. 

The bright clouds faded while they talked, and the 
gathering twilight hung a mist about them full of the 
odor of the blossoming trees. Sweetly, out of the twi- 
light there sounded a girl's voice. She was evidently 
somewhere within the house. What she said we do 
not know, or what vibrant quality thrilled through her 
words. Perhaps it was the inherited musical charm 
of the grandmother's singing, which touched an an- 
swering chord in the young man's heart. Perhaps the 
sunset and the blossoms had created a hush in his 
soul which waited for the voice of the maiden to fill 

310 



IN BLOSSOM TIME. 



it. From this time his host held only half his atten- 
tion. With all his heart he was listening for the mu- 
sical voice again, and when at last he left, with the 
promise of the key to the library on Monday morning, 
the books in many languages had become a secondary 
interest, — he was in love with a voice. 

A little discreet questioning at the parsonage 
brought out the fact that the old Dominie's grand- 
daughter, Louisa Davis, lived with her mother in her 
uncle's home on the Kolderberg, and the young man 
resolved to stay in Claverack till he had made her ac- 
quaintance. 

Eagerly he looked forward to the hour of church 
service, and the opportunity to behold the maiden 
whose voice had charmed him, but disappointment 
was in store for him. All unconsciously she had stay- 
ed at home that spring day. 

Her absence but fanned the rising flame in the visi- 
tor's heart. There is time for much quiet meditation 
and the formation of many plans and purposes 
through a long church service, and piety and love al- 
ternately swayed one worshiper that morning. Be- 
fore the close of the service he had resolved to search 

311 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

the church records and discover whether the Domi- 
nie's granddaughter was a member of the church, 
his New England conscience refusing its consent to 
an affection unblessed by religious experience. 

Here again he was doomed to disappointment, for 
the eighteen-year-old maiden was not a church mem- 
ber, but between the pages of the church records he 
found the entries of the many marriages performed by 
the old Dominie. It was a poor source from which to 
strengthen his resolution to forget the beautiful voice, 
if he could not prove its owner's piety. And so, dis- 
appointed once more, his heart only grew fonder, and 
on Monday morning, instead of fleeing from the en- 
chanted spot back to his city home, or to breathe the 
air of his native New England, he took his way once 
more over the Kolderberg in the dewy morning, a 
path already rich with the thought of love. 

At the end of his walk, a vision burst upon his 
sight, which made his heart start, and then stand still 
with awe. Etched against the masses of white and 
pink blossoming trees, with pools of blue skj between, 
stood a young girl holding in her hands a mass oj 
filmy white material. The gentle breezes blew the 

312 



IN BLOSSOM TIME. 



white film, her dress, and liair in the sinnmer sun- 
shine. Her beautiful arms, dimpled at the elbows, 
waved in the air as she tried to throw the lacey goods 
out straight in front of her, before placing it on the 
hillside grass. Her motions as well as her voice were 
full of grace, her long swan-like throat, the escaping 
tendrils of her hair, the liquid depths of her blue eyes. 
and the pink of her wind-swept cheeks, making a pic» 
ture a painter might long to capture, and before which 
a lover worshiped. 

The young girl was sent with the key and the guest 
to the parsonage, and once more the Kolderberg 
seemed a road of light to the young man's feet. They 
looked over the books together, her sweet voice of- 
fering many happy comments as he handled the old 
volumes, and at length, thirsty with the walk and the 
morning's occupation, they strolled down to the old 
well in the garden. Perhaps the young man planned 
to stray beyond ear-shot of the parsonage family, for 
it was not only a cup of cool water he offered the 
maiden at the parsonage well, but his heart, and his 
hand, and his life. There is no chronicle of her ans- 
wer, but we may reasonably suppose that she said it- 

313 
22 



THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS. 

was "very sudden." 

In the end she asked her lover to wait a year for his 
answer, which he consented to do, writing regularly, 
letters which breathed his passion on every sheet. As 
for the Dominie's granddaughter it would seem that she 
was somewhat of a coquette, for she never answered 
the letters, till at last being expostulated with by her 
mother, she acknowledged that she cared for her ar- 
dent suitor. 

He is said to have sailed toward Claverack for his 
answer one year to a day from the time that was set. 
By some means the letter with the crown of his hopes 
reached him upon a steamboat on the Hudson, while 
he was traveling northward, and his joy knew no 
bounds. 

In the fall of the same year they were married in 
the uncle's new home, and the maiden of the sweet 
voice rode over the Kolderberg, that pathway of beau- 
tiful sunsets and love, to the town of Hudson, where 
she set sail for New York, and a life in the wide world 
little dreamed of in the days before a stranger fell in 
love with her voice in the twilight. 

The Manors with their Court Leet and Court 

314 



IN BLOSSOM TIME. 



Baron and their old world grandeur are gone. The 
tenants no longer pay rent in "scheppels" of wheat, 
hut own their own farms. The old Dominie is gone to his 
reward, and the parsonage with its gambrel roof and 
its past associations is no more, but tales of them all 
still hang low over Clover-reach, like sunset clouds 
edged with gold and rose color, making it a land of 
legend and story, of a romantic interest and dream- 
like charm, equalled by few sections of our home-land. 



THE END 



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